I need input on my website...

Malaxos1 · July 1, 2005

I am almost done with my site, I just have to add my prices for my services. I have landed a few jobs since launchig it, but I am missing something. I shot a wedding two weeks ago and put the photos online for viewing and ordering, I have recieved 14,000 views since doing so. However I have not recieved on single order. Can someone look at the site and give me some feedback. The album is in weddings. It is David and Bethany's wedding and the password is Wedding. Also, I need some tips on how to get my site in the search engines, I already registered it with as manny engines as I could think of and used many key words, but do a search for Portland photographer and you will not find my site no matter what. What do I need to do? Please help, thanks...Dean

digismile · July 2, 2005

Hi Dean,

Took a quick look. I noticed that the photos were not protected and that I could download originals. If I were a possible paying customer and could download a high res file for free instead, I would be clicking away.

My second thought was about pricing. Hopefully some of the dgrin folk that sell their photos online might give some feedback (particularily any that shoot weddings). But if I were Uncle Tom or Cousin Sue and took a look at the vast selection, I would suddenly realize that it would cost me a small fortune @ $6 for a 4x6 photo. For me, I would think that a wedding is an event that people might want a package of photos, not just one or two.

So my question would be, how do other wedding photographers price their services? Charge more upfront for the service and less for small photos?

Hopefully this will spur some kind of dialog for you.

Regards,
Brad

Nikolai · July 2, 2005

My $.00002
From my tiny "pro"-like experience, one can't rely on just going on the event, shoot pictures, upload them to SM, and then expect everybody from the crowd come up and pay for tons of 4x6 @ $4..$6 apiece.
Did that - got like $100 from what supposed to be at least a $1000 session. At least I got experience and a lesson on photo-biz.

Check Shay Stephens site and terms. I like his idea.
Charge what you want in advance, provide specified amount of the hard copies as the part of this deal - and then if somebody want to purchase additional copies - they will be there online ready waiting for them:-)

And yes - no originals, no larges. I'm not a big fan of having huge ugly PROOF letters across the shot, hard to see anything at all, but it may depend upon the circumstances.

HTH

Malaxos1 · July 2, 2005

Thanks for getting back to me. I checked my photos and they all say they are right click protected. Which ones aren't? I need to fix that. The B+G did get a package that will give them at least 500 photos, this is for reprints only. In order to come up with the prices that I didi, I went to every local wedding photographer's website and looked at their reprint prices. I made mine a little less than what they were getting. Also I manage an MSN group call "proffessional phototalk" and was told by some big time pros that the majority of the money is not from the packages but the reprints. Being that reprints are high cost it should make them want to get a bigger package where they will save money. My thisng is that I need to get high on the search engines, I can't even find myself if I looked all day. Just my name being searched produces results, I need to be found when someone does a search for wedding photographer in Portland Oregon...Dean

digismile wrote:

Hi Dean,

Took a quick look. I noticed that the photos were not protected and that I could download originals. If I were a possible paying customer and could download a high res file for free instead, I would be clicking away.

My second thought was about pricing. Hopefully some of the dgrin folk that sell their photos online might give some feedback (particularily any that shoot weddings). But if I were Uncle Tom or Cousin Sue and took a look at the vast selection, I would suddenly realize that it would cost me a small fortune @ $6 for a 4x6 photo. For me, I would think that a wedding is an event that people might want a package of photos, not just one or two.

So my question would be, how do other wedding photographers price their services? Charge more upfront for the service and less for small photos?

Hopefully this will spur some kind of dialog for you.

Regards,
Brad

Malaxos1 · July 2, 2005

Thanks Nikolai, that is exactly how I did it, I charge the B+G X amount for a package that included 500 photos. This is for reprints only. The wedding took place 7 hours drive from where I and many of the guests live. The grooms family is 3000 miles away. What I am attempting to do is get some sales from family and friends that live far away. Also, the B+G don't want to deal with everyone looking for photos of them. They would rather that the people can go online and pay for what they want. I am shooting a wedding next week where the groom's family is from Brazil, they love the idea of the family getting their photos online. They also paid for a package that includes 500 photos...Dean

Nikolai wrote:

From my tiny "pro"-like experience, one can't rely on just going on the event, shoot pictures, upload them to SM, and then expect everybody from the crowd come up and pay for tons of 4x6 @ $4..$6 apiece.
Did that - got like $100 from what supposed to be at least a $1000 session. At least I got experience and a lesson on photo-biz.

Check Shay Stephens site and terms. I like his idea.
Charge what you want in advance, provide specified amount of the hard copies as the part of this deal - and then if somebody want to purchase additional copies - they will be there online ready waiting for them:-)

And yes - no originals, no larges. I'm not a big fan of having huge ugly PROOF letters across the shot, hard to see anything at all, but it may depend upon the circumstances.

HTH

www.deanmalaxos.com

digismile · July 2, 2005

Hi Dean,

Your Ceremony Gallery is the one that is wide open.

Regards,
Brad

Silverspoon Murals · July 5, 2005

I'd like to address your questions about getting listed with search engines. Unfortunately I don't believe there is a way to change the meta tags that Smug mugs puts in for you other than the title tag. Someone please correct me if I am wrong on that point.

Meta tags help search engines place you in the correct category so to speak when people search for a specific site using keywords. Make sure you do make use of the site title (customize it in the control panel)and I would add not only your company name as your title but the fact that you are a portland photograher. Using keywords in your title(words people would search on to find you) is a good use of your title. Also make use of each page by entering text for each photo(alt tags) and using plenty of text to describe your images. Search engines not only look at the meta tags, some have more weight than others, but also, the text on your page is very important. Repeating keywords(search terms people would use to find you) in the text is very important It may seem repetetive, but most people don't read anyway, they are looking at the pictures. Link text is also important. Remember that on your main gallery page that text is linked to the gallery.Name your photos well also. Even though you may be hiding the image title on your page, the html is being read by search engines. Describe your gallery well and people will find you. I search for my site often by keywords to see how my site comes up. The smug mug site comes up pretty prominently. They do submit their site to search engines, which means your site is getting submitted. Other ways to make sure people find you is to have a links directory where you post related links to your website in exchange for a link to your site. There are programs out there to help you with this like Arelis or Zeus recipricol link software. The only problem you may have is that the pages need to be hosted somewhere and I don't know whether smugmug will host other pages besides your photo gallery. Although there are plenty of web hosts out there. The more sites linking to you, the more traffic you will have and your site will eventually move up the food chain. Sites that you should link to are anything people need for a wedding, with the exception of a photographer.

Good luck! Other than doing a pay per click with google or yahoo, that's what you need to do to help people find your site on the internet.

http://www.silverspoonmurals.com

I need input on my website...

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