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Onsite and online Event Pic marketing.
Glort
Registered Users Posts: 1,015 Major grins
So far I have been doing onsite ordering with 12 Vstations and onsite printing.
At every event we get people asking if the pics will be online which I have taken as an excuse not to order on the day and that if I do put the pics online, my overall sales will drop.
In speaking to and reading that most shooters do in fact do online sales even with onsite, I'm thinking that I may have been wrong and want to give the online a go.
I'm still very unsure about this as I have put pics up from several times and always got very little if anything out of it. At this stage, I am looking to get out of events as the returns don't seem to be justifying the effort and investment but as I'm always open to doing things differently, I thought I'd give the online a go to see if I have missed something..... as skeptical as I am.
I just did a big cheer event and despite a few dozen people ringing me to find if the shots were online and the organizers getting annoyed because I didn't have them online even though they were told before they booked me I didn't do that, I have so far got one order. I did let the organizers know that I had put them up due to popular request and they put the link on their face space page and emailed all the schools but so far the one order is all I have got.
I just had another organizer ring and book me for one of the biggest state equine events next year to be held in January and knowing that there are going to be a lot of people traveling and they always want to get away quickly, I thought I'd bite the bullet with the events I have for this year and test the water and refine my approach before it comes around.
For those that do online sales, I'm wondering if there are any particular tricks anyone has found to make it work, particularly if you also do onsite?
So far what I'm thinking to do is make the online orders more expensive either directly or with postage.
I'm thinking I can either add a percentage to the print/ disk cost and include Postage or add postage at the end. I tend to like the postage included option better as it will probably compensate me better and I think looks better to have an up front single price than the extra postage fee tacked on the end.
The other thing I was thinking of to market the online sales was to print flyers and put them on all the cars or in all the floats in the carpark.
I have already asked about this and I have permission from the clubs to it.
I am in 2 minds about actually pushing the online because of past experience so the other option is just to print cards and give them out at the trailer only to those who ask about online in order to prevent people being turned off on site purchases.
To push the onsite a bit more I'm going to offer some packages and have had a heap of new signs printed to put on the side of my tent and trailer.
I am also toying with the idea of making a large sign board that will go on top of the trailer so it will be right up high and have it so the thing will just fold down on the roof for traveling.
Anyway, any tips or suggestions for the online and even thoughts on whether to do it or not would be appreciated!
At every event we get people asking if the pics will be online which I have taken as an excuse not to order on the day and that if I do put the pics online, my overall sales will drop.
In speaking to and reading that most shooters do in fact do online sales even with onsite, I'm thinking that I may have been wrong and want to give the online a go.
I'm still very unsure about this as I have put pics up from several times and always got very little if anything out of it. At this stage, I am looking to get out of events as the returns don't seem to be justifying the effort and investment but as I'm always open to doing things differently, I thought I'd give the online a go to see if I have missed something..... as skeptical as I am.
I just did a big cheer event and despite a few dozen people ringing me to find if the shots were online and the organizers getting annoyed because I didn't have them online even though they were told before they booked me I didn't do that, I have so far got one order. I did let the organizers know that I had put them up due to popular request and they put the link on their face space page and emailed all the schools but so far the one order is all I have got.
I just had another organizer ring and book me for one of the biggest state equine events next year to be held in January and knowing that there are going to be a lot of people traveling and they always want to get away quickly, I thought I'd bite the bullet with the events I have for this year and test the water and refine my approach before it comes around.
For those that do online sales, I'm wondering if there are any particular tricks anyone has found to make it work, particularly if you also do onsite?
So far what I'm thinking to do is make the online orders more expensive either directly or with postage.
I'm thinking I can either add a percentage to the print/ disk cost and include Postage or add postage at the end. I tend to like the postage included option better as it will probably compensate me better and I think looks better to have an up front single price than the extra postage fee tacked on the end.
The other thing I was thinking of to market the online sales was to print flyers and put them on all the cars or in all the floats in the carpark.
I have already asked about this and I have permission from the clubs to it.
I am in 2 minds about actually pushing the online because of past experience so the other option is just to print cards and give them out at the trailer only to those who ask about online in order to prevent people being turned off on site purchases.
To push the onsite a bit more I'm going to offer some packages and have had a heap of new signs printed to put on the side of my tent and trailer.
I am also toying with the idea of making a large sign board that will go on top of the trailer so it will be right up high and have it so the thing will just fold down on the roof for traveling.
Anyway, any tips or suggestions for the online and even thoughts on whether to do it or not would be appreciated!
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www.jonbakerphotography.com
I think the folks asking about them being Online could be wanting to purchase that way, but my gut tells me, they'd just like to be able to look at them, not buy, but go and look when they want to see them. Which makes me wonder if simply offering a CD of images Onsite would alleviate all of that. Personally I am envious of the workstations. I would have thought that was a true no-brainer for folks to buy from.
Posting Online is great only if you can find an incentive for them to buy Online.
I think I ask the too hard questions, I never get many replies to anything I ask about but I certainly do appreciate those that take the time to try to help.
My feeling has been exactly what you say, online is an excuse not to buy today and forget about it later.
I have also come to believe that I am not going to sell to everyone that may want to buy for one reason or another but having onsite viewing and printing minimizes the lost sales.
We already do CD's at 3 different numbers of Images inclauded and price levels and they are about 50% of overall sales. Perhaps in real terms they are more as they are all a higher value than any single print we offer.
Now the rub is I have seen how people take off at the end of the events I do, I call it the great horse truck drag race as they will move their rigs up to the gate in long lines like they are forming up a racing car grid so they can get the jump on the start and be first one out the gate when the announcer says, " Thanks for coming, see you next time. "
The places go from dead quiet to a ground shaking rumbling in 60 sec with the smell of diesel and unleaded filling the air... Literally.
In speaking to various shooters that do onsite, they also say they get good sales afterwards. One local guy I spoke to the other week indicated that his sales were as good as mine ( Without him knowing what mine were) and that he expects to get another 50% over the next 2 weeks after an event in online orders.
I also did a big event recently and I have had a lot of people tell me that they had to leave soon as the event was finished because they were catching buses to take them long distances home.
And its this drag race at the end that I'm trying to overcome. I know an amount of people that help with the organizing really don't get a chance to look at the pics because they are not really finished till they are at least walking out the gate and even then they are trying to get home to offload the horse and do what they have to before it gets dark.
What I am going to also do on the next events is have ALL the pics I have shot this season on the Vstations and offer a discount for the CD's and maybe something off prints. Hopefully this should give some of the people that have missed out a chance to look at the images and me to make something out of otherwise dead Pics.
The other idea is to offer a discount on the pics up until a certain time.
At the end of any event we could have 20 Vstations and still have people waiting where during the day up until about an hour or less before the things finish, all we are doing is chasing away little kids who want to run around and play in the tent.
If is not unusual for some riders to be done before or just after lunch and they are hanging round for the presentations but they or the parents still wont come to look at the pics till the last minute.... when everyone else does!
I'm trying to think of an incentive to get these people to come look at their shots earlier in the day. I don't want to bastardize the product or price so what I'm thinking is something along the lines of buy a mid price CD ( $75 for 6-10 images) and get a bonus print. I -might- think about doing 2 prints with the $100 Disk. ATM i have my A4 print costs down to about .10C ea so there is plenty of margin in those to use to drive up the overall average spend which is really what I'm after.
I'll have the offer going with the past event Pics till say 2 hours before the expected finish time or maybe 2 Pm, at which time we'll change the Vstations over to the days events and end the other offers.
Just to keep the inevitable late comers happy, I'll leave just one station with the past events on it but the early Bird offer will have course expired. .
We'll be able to get plenty of announcements through the day on the PA and I'll also make up some signs for my sandwich boards to put out telling the people about the past event pics offer and the bonus print with a CD.
Sooooo, Although online flies in the face of past experience, I have got to the point where I'm thinking I might be missing something and I should give it a decent test at least.
I'm also of the thought that there are probably tricks to make it really work and that's what I'm hoping to get some insight to.
I'm thinking the flyers on all the vehicles and given out to the audience to make them aware I'm doing it would be an important step as most of the people that know me also know I don't put the pics on line so I have to turn that around.... and hope I don't have to turn it round again!
I have been doing this 18 months now and have a pretty clear idea of what to expect from a given event given that all the ones I have coming up I did last year although with fewer V stations and a lesser range of products which have both been significant in increasing sales. If i don't see a big Increase in what I get from last year, I'll know it was a BIG mistake.
So far the only incentive I can think of for online is the fact they may not have got to see the images on the day and that I'll make the online orders more expensive.
If there are any other ideas I have missed that have worked for people I'll be certainly glad to hear them!
In the short time I was at the viewing stations during breaks, I had at least 50 people ask if the photos would be online to view... (key word there... VIEW) and about 25 asked when they would be available to ORDER. I don't think everyone who goes to the website will order. I do know from past events that I will make enough off this one event's online sales to pay for the website, some more advertising, and maybe a few goodies for myself. I know many kids will grab screen shots for Face-hole... so thats why I have a watermark that covers alot of area.
I price my onsite orders the same as my online prices because I have built in the price of shipping when people order onsite just as when people order online, I pay a percentage to Smug Mug. What I do tell people when they ask about online ordering is they will be paying a shipping charge in addition to the purchase price when they order online. I have had people who had said they couldn't stick around actually stop and take the time to browse the images again and place an order to save $5 on shipping.
I offer CD's onsite and offer people a method to order that same disc once we are home and although I did not have any takers on the CDs this event, I am sticking with them.
As far as the online images go, I watermark them and also only allow "Medium" as the largest size that they can view.
If you are prepared to give the online sales a try, I would say set a specific timeline and set goals for that time. If you meet or exceed the goals.... then you have your answer. If not, drop the online sales.
Probably wasn't much of a help here, but wanted to give some input. Now back to the uploading....
Lance.
No, that was actually quite helpful in giving me some things to think about.
Thank You.
Like your experience, I have had loads of people tell me they didn't have time to look at the pics and then they took their sweet time going through them and seemed in no hurry to take off even when the prints were ready and I had been chatting to them trying to take their attention off clock watching.
My instinct tells me that buying a photo on-line is not natural for most people. You prefer to see the print. Then there is the issue of trust, not only for payments but for results.
Some ideas, should you decide to go ahead:
- set your web pricing 25% higher. You can then say your show pricing is special show discount. All the more reason to buy now.
- give some testimonials on the web site to build trust
- offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Return ALL photos for credit if you are not happy (no partial returns). In practice hardly anyone ever sends anything back - it is too much hassle for the amount of money involved.
- give a performance guarantee. All orders shipped within 48 hours, say. It is becoming standard for sellers to offer a choice of delivery speeds - overnight if you pay.
- keep the ordering very simple. Just collect the minimum required info and use a third-party trustworthy company to process payments - eg Smugmug
- put a big selection of images up, people are buying "this is us at the show" and not valuing the art. When I do photos for Carnival I notice people buy one of themselves and then, while they are at it, buy another 5 or 6 with either themselves on friends on.
- keep track of Google Analytics and modify your approach. Selling on the net is like selling anywhere else, converting suspects to prospects to customers.
Hi. As some of you know, I do most of my business through my on-line galleries at SmugMug. There are pros and cons.
The pros are - I don't have to handle credit card or other forms of payments; the print quality and service from SM's labs are excellent; it is minimal hassle for me because I don't have to handle the prints, packaging and shipping.
The cons are - I'm not in the USA so my clients have to pay exchange on the money (which isn't much right now, but could be); the shipping charges; paying sales tax and duty when they come through the border - all of those charges can exceed the cost of the prints by a LOT (SmugMug - PLEASE get a Canadian affiliate lab and accept other currencies).
Sadly, the cons outweigh the pros from the customers' perspective.
I agree that many people just want to see the images on-line. I started putting time limits on my galleries - available for viewing for 30 or 45 days or something to that effect. (And my images all have a honkin' big watermark in the middle of them that other photogs criticize but I don't care - it makes it too tough to screen capture or download and try to remove the watermark) That did help drive sales. I also did pre-bookings at the events - i.e. you pay me $X up front, I shoot your ride, or your horse, or your portrait (depending on which package you choose) - and I give you back a fixed dollar value coupon to apply toward the cost of any prints you choose. don't buy prints? coupon is useless. Buy prints? Great. Profit pour moi. I really like SmugMug's system except for the international thing.
I tried on-site selling. It worked the one time I had an assistant to sit in the booth, show images and take orders (no on-site printing) but then I had the overhead of paying my assistant, renting the booth, etc. etc. and when all was said and done - a wash financially.
If our events were larger (greater numbers of competitors and parents on-site) it might be worthwhile to set up v-stations and either take orders or look into on-site printing. But I don't think it's feasible for me now.
The other thing I found is that this year I shot for one organization at all of their events. Very few bought until the end of the season and then only those that won or were in the top 3 in each division. However, I did have some clients that then went back through prior shows and ordered images from 3 months ago (I provided links to archived galleries upon request). There isn't a lot of logic to this I'm finding. Event photography is a tough way to eek out a lliving. I much prefer pre-booked and/or scheduled portrait sessions and am backing away from doing events. If I can't make a profit on my time, I'll find something else to do that pleases me more.
http://www.imagesbyceci.com
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Picadilly, NB, Canada
Snow, sometimes you scare me mate.
It's amazing how much we think alike on some things.
I too am looking at backing out of the event work because I also think it is too much effort and investment for the returns. Perhaps our location has a lot to do with it as well in that we just don't have the population concentration of the US or UK.
Today I had an organiser ring and book me for a state level championship Dressage event for the biggest association of it's type here. I am in the biggest ( most populated) state and the organiser was kind of " batten the hatches, this is going to be a huge one, 250, maybe 280 riders!"
From the guys I talk to in the states, they would have more riders at the local county fair... any local county fair!
The reason the organizer asked me to do this over the " so many photographers that have been ringing me " is because I'm the biggest in my state and as far as I'm aware, the country.
Hammy has a couple of full size semis with over 100 Vstations and I have a 2x2.5 M trailer, a 6x3M tent and up to 12 vstations. It's laughable really.
He does events of 10,000 kids regularly, I think I'm doing well to get in front of 100. I believe his biggest cheer event is 15,000, ours is 1500 and I can't think of anything else that would be bigger.
I have a love hate relationship with events. I think I like the idea a lot more than the practice of doing them. I got into the biz when I was too sick to do anything else and a weekend event would take me till the following Thursday to recover from the effort. I still feel really sick when I get up to do them due to early rising not being overly compatible with my medication.
I do enjoy getting out and shooting the things though and meeting and talking to the kids and parents. I think this is why I'm still hanging on to them and just not making a clean break.
At the same time, I'm also painfully aware now that i am better and able to work more normally that the events have a terrible return on investment both asset and labor wise. I have free slave labour in the form of my wife and 2 kids but from a real business POV, I'm making nothing.
Given that we are working for our mutual benefit, the money has come in real handy and allowed us a few little luxuries that make life more enjoyable.
I have one personality fault ( among hundreds of others!) in that I really hate something to beat me, even when it beats me to death. i really want to make this business work even if i then do turn around and give it away because then i would be going on to something else coming from a success not something unsuccessful. What I have done is far from a failure, I recouped my initial investment by the 6th event and the thing has well and truly paid for the upgrades since. It's just that i can earn just as much money or a lot more with a day of my time, let alone what i earn with 3-4 other people helping me.
This is the reason I want to try the online sales and see if there is something I have missed. Even discussing it here makes me think more and more I have been right all along and there are few reasons it will work and many it will be a bad idea but I have to know and therefore have to give it the best shot I can in order to prove things one way or the other.
My plan at this stage is to do the online sales with selected events. There are some I think will achieve the best saturation of sales by driving them with my onsite only early bird specials to lessen the amount of people delugeing us at the end and the past event specials. At other events where the participants are different, I think the online will have the best potential.
Something someone told me the other day is that they NEVER see professional riders looking at pics let alone buying them. This agrees entirely with my own experience but I put it down to the fact they probably got a heap of publicity shots and the novelty was over. What this shooter has found however is that they often do good sales to these pro riders online.
He is of the opinion that for riders they shoot ( campdrafting and rodeo events) that it's not "Manly" or cool to even be looking at pics of yourself, let alone buying them. Online gives a certain privacy and they can always say the wife bought them.
As I have an event coming up in about a month that is at least 50% pro riders, I'm going to make sure I get flyers into or on ALL those half million Dollar rigs a lot of these guys and girls drive and see what happens.
I'm lucky in that my slave labor eliminates a lot of the problems you have Snow. Still, even with that in my favor, the money I get is not any more than i could get on my own doing Glamor Shoots let alone weddings.
I'm planning on putting a couple of irons in other fires and see how i go there. I might just limit myself to doing one big event a month or if the other things go as well as I dream, then I may just go to events as a spectator and to enjoy myself.
I really enjoy our local and provincial dressage events - but for personal reasons. I'm a riding coach on the side and my students compete in these events - so I would be there anyway to coach. The events are held at a show facility in my home town so I have no travel costs to speak of. But, if I had to load up, burn gas, stay in a hotel (or scrounge from friends) etc. it definitely would not be worth my time from a strictly business perspective.
When I was younger (and healthier and stronger) I also rode and competed in dressage so I still have friends on the circuit as well - so those events are rather social for me. Other ones? Nah. I don't even try for them.
As I mentioned previously, this past event was my best one. I think it's because I stuck to my guns at the previous show. People asked me if I'd gotten any shots of this ride or that. My response was, "if you didn't pre-book me then I didn't shoot the ride". So, this time, they came to me and made sure they were pre-booked.
One former client ordered a couple of shots from the prize presentations. There were none of her rides because she didn't pre-book. She had her husband there, camera in hand. Her comment, when ordering the presentation shots, was that her husband turned out not to be a very good photographer. Surprise. A small camera shooting from the top of the spectator bleachers? nope.
I'm going to stick to other forms of photography for income - ones that give me both pleasure and profit.
Oh - and in terms of numbers? Our BIGGEST shows in this region (Quarter Horse shows) attract about 150 competitors. That's a LONG WAY from a critical mass of 1500 or more, let alone 15,000 potential buyers.
http://www.imagesbyceci.com
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Picadilly, NB, Canada
- horsey events are good because horsey people have lots of money. They may not think they do, but they do.
- horsey events are good because families and friends get together; horsey people are clannish.
- at any event, a goodly proportion of time is spent wandering around wanting to be entertained and go shopping: spend money.
From Glort I learn that the history of horsey photographers is the lone shooter of horse rides - now being replaced by the not-so-competent family member with a P&S or Rebel, shooting for free. I also learn that the future is BIG: the guy with the professional eye, the displays, and the on-site printing service., and the volume. This is actually normal with any service - at a certain moment the guys prepared to make the capital investment blow the others out of the water. Bill Gates even gave his software away virtually for free for a while to destroy the competition - the result is an uncontested market leadership which allows for rising prices and a sustainable business model. Gort has a tough call: organize to compete with "Hammy" (winner takes all but how much is it anyway) or find something else to shoot. Sticking around for the crumbs off the table is not attractive.
I think part of becoming BIG in events is realizing the potential of a captive clannish audience. Shooting the rides is probably something you have to do in order to get exclusivity with the organizers, but the real business is likely the on-site portraits (pray for rain).
As I said, this is perhaps a crazy idea for people who do this every day, but I felt like chipping in.
http://www.imagesbyceci.com
http://www.facebook.com/ImagesByCeci
Picadilly, NB, Canada
Oh no, no competition.
I am in Australia, Hammy is in the US....although he's coming to dinner next week on the way through to NZ.
Hammy has been a HUGE help to me in my foray into event work and if it were not for his generous time and guidance, I wouldn't be where I am now.
I don't compete with Hammy, he'd wipe the floor with me, but what I was commenting on was the difference between what he does in the US and what's available to me here.
The thing for me is, I'm already pretty much at saturation point. Even if I had 100 Vstations and 10 shooters working for me, there is no point because the size of the events here in no way justify even half of that which is the real problem.
I'm small time but there's little point in going bigger, the market just isn't there. As far as I can see, the biggest I could practically go is 30 Vstations but then there are a VERY limited amount of events that would justify that size setup anyway. In reality, I could put together a setup of 50 Vstations by the weekend and today is Thursday. Cost and logistics is not a concern, justification of the investment and setting up that size layout is.
Where I do see a lot of potential in is using my event knowledge in the corporate sector with pre-paid work instead of on spec sales. I have tested the water for the concept I have and the concept was very well regarded and the returns were great. I don't think anyone is currently doing what I have in mind which makes for great potential. There is no reason why I couldn't work for one company on event in the 3 biggest capital cities or for that matter all over the country if they want to make it worthwhile.
What may also work is onsite corporate function work as a promotional medium for the hosts rather than the guests. I have done functions where I sold to the guests and I did do well from it howwever i would prefer to eliminate the risks and know what I was getting out of the deal before I went into it. Practicality may show that to be asking for too much.
I also have what I think is a pretty radical and never done before here idea which is based on something I have seen done and think is fairly common in the US. The chances of it going no where are very high, the returns if I can sell it would be substantial. All part of the fun!
I think this has some potential. It also has some difficulty for me but I'll follow Snows lead and see if I can make it fly.
I have had a heap of new signs printed this week, I think I need to get a couple more done ready for my next event.
It adds greatly to my confusion!
My experience and what I am hearing from people is a 3 way conflict. My experience and other people saying one thing and some more saying another.
I was thinking of putting the shots online for a limited time like 2 weeks. Talking to my mentor last week made me re-think that. He said he gets worthwhile orders about a year after the event... when the next one comes up and people are reminded they didn't get shots last time or want more for comparison of how their kid has grown or changed in a year.
So much for my " Call them to action quickly " idea.
I might tell them shots will only be online for 2 weeks and then just leave them there. See how long that works for.
Your feedback with parents not knowing how to order gels with my past experience. When i first started out i had a shopping cart system on the Vstations. Looked professional, straightforward worked nice.
Trouble was, the parents were bamboozled by it. We literally had people come and ask what should they put in the "Name" section. I kid you not.
The kids were fine with it, they knew what to do but the parents fiddled and fuddled with the most simple orders and if they didn't need us to do the order for them, the time they spent at the stations slowed traffic flow badly.
I went to a straight gallery setup on the v stations and now print slips of paper for order forms with the exact same detail from as what was on the shopping cart and people are fine with that.
I can't work it out.
Anyway, I'm in about 10 minds with the online but I figure I have to test it with the best marketing I can do to see what flies before I can make a decision either way.
I was advised the other day of a marketing system that is applicable for a variety of events I do that will eliminate the need for Vstations and online sites so I'm busy setting up what I need to make that happen and writing letters to the event organizers for next years shows to try and get it to fly.
Even though it offers a lot of advantages for organizers, competitors and me, I don't expect it will be uptake by everyone simply because of the fact it will be new and they will be resistant to change.
I'll be happy to hook a few on the idea though and might even try doing an event at very low to no cost to show people how it works.
With the online, there is one event i have coming up i'm sure will work well ( if it's going to) as there are a lot of pro riders and others that don't hang around long enough to look at pics.
Another I'm not so sure about.
I'm still worried I'll cut my own throat with the onsite sales but only one way to try I guess.
If I don't do it, I am risking loosing sales for all my future events. If I try it and it doesn't work, i'm only risking some sales for a couple of events.
I just remembered a quote from Wayne Gretzky: You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
As far as the new system, when ever you are willing, I would like to hear what this is.... Good luck, keep us posted.
You don't have enough viewing stations for cheerleading to ensure everyone has a chance to order on-site, sell online. Avoid advertising the photos will be available later and it should not effect your on-site sales. We print on-site adding another incentive. We also keep cards at our stations with our website info and more importantly our hosts have our website information linked on their sites.
BTW: I'm not aware of anyone with "full size semis" hauling their event photography gear around. Your confusing host organizations that own semis to haul their stage equipment, lights, mats etc and allow vendors space in the trailer for their gear.
Good to see you here!
I was thinking of exactly what you said, not advertising the online but giving cards out if people ask. I think for some events this will be the way to go and with others, like where there are a lot of pro riders, I'll just try to let everyone know.
At this stage it's all an experiment so I'll have to try different things to see what works.
As far as the on site printing, I'm with you on that one and that's what I have been doing.... ( with inkjets!
I can also see Hammys POV very well and for me, with the bigger events, I just do ordering. He's right, it doesn't effect sales at those big ones where you seem to get a feeding frenzy.
I don't like sending the stuff out afterwards a lot, postage has been a pain and caused problems but it's something I have to wear.
The problem with having few large events is that it's difficult to get suitable manpower organized and trained up when you are doing things occasionally. With yourself and hammy you can have a crew that you use all the time where as if I only need them a few times a year, more difficult to get suitable people.
For this reason, for the small stuff I'll do onsite printing and for the larger ones I'll just do ordering. I'm not committed to any particular business model other than what I believe will make me the most money at a given event.
Atm I am enthused and excited by the onsite CD thing and I have built a small duplicator so i can test the idea and get a feel for it and also pitch it to the organizers. I think it may be difficult from the POV that they will be resistant to change but I'm also thinking of some sort of loss leader introduction where I'll do it to show them at my expense on the basis that if it works and gets good feedback they will contract me to do X number of events at a price that will be worth while to me.
I'm thinking that making up 3 boxes of 10 dupes which will cover anything I could take on here ( and I could build another 3 boxes in a day easily if need be) will be a lot less to carry than Vstations and solve nearly all the problems with on site or online that I have now.
For the Cheer Event I did I put on 20 stations but your right, it still wasn't enough. Not sure that 50 would have been for that gig. I was talking to Hammy the other day when he was here and it seems that there were a number of aspects such as the number of routines they did in the day, the amount of routines the same people competed in and speed of which they came on that even he hadn't done before so I was really up against it.
I did put the shots online afterward and got jack orders from it.
Yes, your right about the semis. I was off base with that one but sure I had read or seen a pic of one somewhere a while back but I must have been imagining it.
Still, Sibi and I were having a great laugh between the size of the events in the US and the gear people have there to cover them and the size of things here and what I have.
I have found a couple of potential new markets in the last couple of weeks that offer good potential. I'm pitching the CD thing as well as the onsite/ online to them but hooking them will be a 2 edged sword.
The shooter that is covering the events now has been doing it FOREVER, BUT, he does a limited and very old fashioned look and coverage to the pics and does online sales only.
I have spoken to a few of the students and teachers about what I can offer and they seemed thrilled with onsite Viewing or delivery of prints or otherwise but whether the powers that be will is an entirely different thing.
I'm thinking at this stage the best way in may be to try and get in with the individual clubs and cover their events, then go to the zone, area and try to work my way up from there once I have got some people onside with what i offer.
Maybe they are all really happy with the 80's look the other guy does and won't want to talk to me at all.
Only one way to find out!