Selling Photo CDs?

AlbertZeroK · July 19, 2010

How are people selling Photo CD's that I can burn myself on Smug Mug on a Pro Account?

mercphoto · July 19, 2010

You can't, at least not directly through the shopping cart. You have to go around the system, such as a PayPal link. This is probably the biggest single reason that made me switch to Exposure Manager. EM has two ways to go about CD-ROM sales. In one method you define your own product that you self-fulfill. The customer orders the CD from one of their images, you find all remaining images of them, burn the CD, mail it yourself. In the other method the customer chooses all the images themselves, then EM will burn the CD and mail it for you. You can put limits on how many images can be chosen, or make a tiered pricing system (up to 20 images for one price, up to 40 for a second price, etc).

Here's a referral link:
http://www.exposuremanager.com/aff/mercphoto

Nicci · July 21, 2010

CD's are bad for the environment anyway

AlbertZeroK · July 21, 2010

Tecnicole wrote: »

CD's are bad for the environment anyway

Um okay, but can u help me?

nipprdog · July 21, 2010

Tecnicole wrote: »

CD's are bad for the environment anyway

Wow!!

What a great photography/business post!!

Nicci · July 21, 2010

I think it is in poor business practice to encourage unnecessary CD production. CD's are almost impossible to recycle and are an unreliable method of storage.

If people can download the photos from a gallery or receive them electronically, what is the need for a CD? (I would genuinely like to know.)

bitwise95 · July 22, 2010

Tecnicole wrote: »

I think it is in poor business practice to encourage unnecessary CD production. CD's are almost impossible to recycle and are an unreliable method of storage.

If people can download the photos from a gallery or receive them electronically, what is the need for a CD? (I would genuinely like to know.)

I have some clients that absolutely refuse to view and download the images off the website. They insist I send a cd/dvd of the images. They tell me it is easier and less frustrating for them to have them on a CD. Perhaps they have software that auto opens when the cd is inserted and walks them thru viewing the images in a way that works for them.

mercphoto · July 22, 2010

Tecnicole wrote: »

I think it is in poor business practice to encourage unnecessary CD production. CD's are almost impossible to recycle and are an unreliable method of storage.

If people can download the photos from a gallery or receive them electronically, what is the need for a CD? (I would genuinely like to know.)

Racing clients come to my page, pick one image of them, order the CD-ROM, then I find all remaining images of them, burn the CD and drop it in the mail. Its a convenience thing. They don't have to locate every image of them, they don't have to click "download" over and over again.

Nicci · July 22, 2010

Understandably there are going to be some that have their own way of doing things and don't want to change.

But do you find this to be a significant portion of your customer base? How often do you come across clients that insist on a CD?

bitwise95 wrote: »

I have some clients that absolutely refuse to view and download the images off the website. They insist I send a cd/dvd of the images. They tell me it is easier and less frustrating for them to have them on a CD. Perhaps they have software that auto opens when the cd is inserted and walks them thru viewing the images in a way that works for them.

mercphoto · July 22, 2010

Tecnicole wrote: »

Understandably there are going to be some that have their own way of doing things and don't want to change.

But do you find this to be a significant portion of your customer base? How often do you come across clients that insist on a CD?

If I have a track day customer who buys 30 images there is currently no convenient way to electronically deliver that many hi-res images. I just sent my parents 250 photos on CD, which would be really impractical. I'd like a better way, I just don't see it yet. I enjoy the sales, but I don't enjoy burning the disc, designing a label, printing a label, stuffing and mailing an envelope...

Nicci · July 22, 2010

Can you accomplish the same thing digitally?

Couldn't this happen on SmugMug: Make a package for the price that you charge for a CD and your searching services. The customer comes to your site, finds one of their photos, and purchases the package. You find the remaining images of them and send via email, FTP, or online download service rather than mailing a CD.

Again, I understand that some people might not budge from their CD's. Do photographers end up in that situation often?

I am fairly new to the business, but so far none of my clients that started off thinking they needed a CD ever ended up requesting one. They were content with the instant gratification of the digitally delivered photos.

But if anyone had asked, I could do that on my own on a case by case basis assuming it is not an unmanageable number of CD requests.

I prefer to guide people away from unnecessary, unrecyclable material when at all possible.

mercphoto wrote: »

Racing clients come to my page, pick one image of them, order the CD-ROM, then I find all remaining images of them, burn the CD and drop it in the mail. Its a convenience thing. They don't have to locate every image of them, they don't have to click "download" over and over again.

mercphoto · July 22, 2010

That's the thing, there is no way to currently accomplish this. Not that its impossible, just that nobody is doing it yet. Neither Smugmug (who I think you use) nor Exposure Manager (who I use), or anybody else I'm aware of, have this sort of bulk delivery feature. I do most of what you suggest: I have a self-fulfill item defined with Exposure Manager for an "event CD". The customer finds one of their photos, buys the event CD from that, I locate the remaining images. At this point I could FTP the images to Exposure Manager but they have no mechanism to then deliver that digital package to the customer. (it would certainly be nice to!) And I'm not about to try and explain to my customers how to let me FTP the images directly to them. Not going to happen.

Bear in mind, there are some business advantages of the CD. The packaging can be made attractive, such as a nicely designed CD label, etc.

Tecnicole wrote: »

Can you accomplish the same thing digitally?

Couldn't this happen on SmugMug: Make a package for the price that you charge for a CD and your searching services. The customer comes to your site, finds one of their photos, and purchases the package. You find the remaining images of them and send via email, FTP, or online download service rather than mailing a CD.

Again, I understand that some people might not budge from their CD's. Do photographers end up in that situation often?

I am fairly new to the business, but so far none of my clients that started off thinking they needed a CD ever ended up requesting one. They were content with the instant gratification of the digitally delivered photos.

But if anyone had asked, I could do that on my own on a case by case basis assuming it is not an unmanageable number of CD requests.

I prefer to guide people away from unnecessary, unrecyclable material when at all possible.

tlphotos · July 23, 2010

Like a cd - only better
I agree that some just want cds as that is what they are used to, and there are advantages to creating designs for cd packages. Then again, that's why I do not like doing cds, I have to create a professional looking cd and get it out to them.
I mainly shoot little league sports and something I've been doing that is gaining popularity with my clients is what I call "purchased galleries." My prices vary, but say for $50, a client wants their daughter's photos from a game. They either pay cash or I set the price for an original download for $50. After I get paid, I create a new gallery and populate it with just their kid's photos, and I open up the gallery for them to download, email, and/or order prints (no $$ mark ups). Then I email the family the gallery link and password. I received what $$$ I wanted up front, they can download photos and make their own cd if they want or use in digital scrapbooking, make prints locally, etc as well as still be able to order prints and things at cost through SmugMug vendors. Part of my marketing is there are no cds to lose, send the link to grandma and other family members and they too can have full access to photos - no making cd copies for them and paying for mailers. If the prints are ever damaged or lost, their originals are still available. SmugMug has a few hacks that allow downloads of entire galleries at once and the email feature is a great way for them to forward the gallery to family and friends. I also find that families make more use of photos when they only pay $0.19 per photo rather than $5 so the kids get copies to put on their school binders that ends up being free advertising for me. And most people feel that when they buy a photo, it's theirs, so they go to Walmart photo lab and scan copies of the photo they purchased from me anyway - so it's nicer to get my $$$ up front and they are free to get as many copies as they want. Anyway, I find this "purchased gallery" method to be a huge time saver for me, captures what could be lost revenues by getting money up front, and my clients really like the benefit of their personal SmugMug gallery. I advertise it as "like getting a photo cd - only better!"

mercphoto wrote: »

That's the thing, there is no way to currently accomplish this. Not that its impossible, just that nobody is doing it yet. Neither Smugmug (who I think you use) nor Exposure Manager (who I use), or anybody else I'm aware of, have this sort of bulk delivery feature. I do most of what you suggest: I have a self-fulfill item defined with Exposure Manager for an "event CD". The customer finds one of their photos, buys the event CD from that, I locate the remaining images. At this point I could FTP the images to Exposure Manager but they have no mechanism to then deliver that digital package to the customer. (it would certainly be nice to!) And I'm not about to try and explain to my customers how to let me FTP the images directly to them. Not going to happen.

Bear in mind, there are some business advantages of the CD. The packaging can be made attractive, such as a nicely designed CD label, etc.

Nicci · July 23, 2010

tlphotos wrote: »

SmugMug has a few hacks that allow downloads of entire galleries at once and the email feature is a great way for them to forward the gallery to family and friends...Anyway, I find this "purchased gallery" method to be a huge time saver for me, captures what could be lost revenues by getting money up front, and my clients really like the benefit of their personal SmugMug gallery. I advertise it as "like getting a photo cd - only better!"

I haven't delved into this myself yet, but allowing downloading of entire galleries at once sounds good. Can you tell me where/how I can enable that?

tlphotos · July 23, 2010

Here is the link: http://wiki.smugmug.net/display/SmugMug/Hacks+and+Apps

Tecnicole wrote: »

I haven't delved into this myself yet, but allowing downloading of entire galleries at once sounds good. Can you tell me where/how I can enable that?

Nicci · July 23, 2010

Actually just caught this in the SmugMug release notes:

http://release-notes.blogs.smugmug.com/2010/07/22/bulk-digital-downloads-full-screen-slideshow-and-packages-improvements-bug-fixes/

easy, peasy

clap

Selling Photo CDs?

Comments