Getting the hits but not the sales - is there more data available to me?

johnsbrothers · April 3, 2016

Hi all!

I launched my website just a week ago and I've started to get people coming to my site, but nobody is buying. It's a landscape photography site so I appreciate it's just one of a million doing the same and likewise it is very early days, but I know I can make improvements to what is there.

I don't believe my website is setup correctly yet, but I'm not getting enough data from smugmug to be able to make changes.

Yesterday for example was the best day yet by a long way - over 100k hits - but not one sale. Is there any way I can tell if people are even hitting the Buy button and then bailing? At least then that would indicate the prices are too high. I have no idea if anybody is even remotely interested at the moment.
If people aren't even hitting the buy button that suggests a design issue or the product isn't good enough.

I don't feel like I have enough data available to me. How are others doing with landscape photography websites?

Cheers,
Pete
http://johnsbrothers.photography

Ferguson · April 3, 2016

I can't answer the cart abandonment question or anything specific to SM, but do you have your site in Google Analytics, there is a lot of information there.

That information might not translate into "why didn't they buy", which is a whole different question, but it tells you were they are from and some other demographic info, turns hits into users so you know if it's a few looking a lot, or a lot looking just a bit.

And it's free.

Sam · April 3, 2016

You got over 100K people looking at your website, in one day!!!!!!

I am seriously doing something or everything wrong!!!

I would love to know your secret!

Now as to your website. I see some nice images, but I also see images I don't thing are up to the better ones I see on your website.

With regard to sales....................simply posting images online will normally net you zero to no sales, and I don't really care how good the image are or how cheap.

People want to buy from photographers they have met. Of course if you are a noted and famous photographer that would be different.

Some type of marketing needs to not only drive folks to visit your site but provide a reason they should buy.

Sam

Some type of marketing needs to happen that will drive folks to visit and also to entice them to purchase.

A cold visit generally gets nada, zip.

Them's me thoughts.

Sam

Your prices don't reflect fine art. The are more inline with event type images. Fine art images are typically much higher that what you have posted.

johnsbrothers · April 4, 2016

Thanks for the comments. I don't really know the answer still but I guess if I did I'd be out taking photos somewhere and not sat writing reports about things I don't particularly care about

100k in one day - yeah it was a pretty crazy day! The total figure was actually 115952 hits going by SM (though I don't think the way SM counts is hugely accurate). The secret to that was just advertising and blind luck - one of my photos got very popular on Reddit and suddenly got featured all over the place. Sunday brought in 10k hits as the story became old and today is back in the hundreds for the time being. Internet is so fickle

I'm not going to do anything to change the site yet, I want to stay running for a month and see what happens and then review what's happening. Not looking to make a career out of this or anything, just the odd sale to help fund new camera kit!

denisegoldberg · April 4, 2016

johnsbrothers wrote: »

I'm not going to do anything to change the site yet, I want to stay running for a month and see what happens and then review what's happening. Not looking to make a career out of this or anything, just the odd sale to help fund new camera kit!

Sam's right - it's very difficult (if not impossible) to drive sales of photos by simply creating and populating a web site. I believe you need to be actively promoting your work elsewhere and driving people to your site. I'll be interested to hear if anything changes during your 1-month waiting period.

--- Denise

djwhip · June 21, 2016

Results so far
Hi Johns Brothers. I am new to this type of forum. I am a bit older but am curious as to how do get more paying customers. I have been a pro account user on SmugMug for at least 5 years and have made some money but want to make my site more professional for photo purchases. I have been mainly using my pictures for 2 purposes. 1. To promote my DJ business to new customers who might not know me but can now see some of my work through photos. 2. Take action sports shots of my 2 teenage kids in their various travel sports and school teams. My daughter just competed in a lacrosse tournament this past weekend and I only shot 2 of her games but posted about 700 photos. I currently had 23,000 hits yesterday and it might beat that today. I did get one order so far from a competitors team pictures but mostly just views. I do crop most of my shots and do some exposure corrections so these are generally high quality pictures. I am shooting with a Canon 50D and a Canon Pro lens - 70-200mm 2.8L. I don't watermark my photos so I assume most of the kids/ teenagers are just taking screen shots. I do allow downloading for a fee. I was impressed with your site and the beautiful images. Your prices are much higher than mine since I am using mine more for promoting my business and creating custom posters. What have you discovered in your site and do you have any suggestions for me? Thanks for any replies.

tartan snow · June 23, 2016

From my own experience a Facebook page gets you noticed faster than anything. People local to you are more likely to buy a landscape of a place local to them that they know and like and have memories of. Often they are pubs, restaurants, hotels or shops. I find that it's mostly older people who buy prints or canvases to hang in their house. People like photos of themselves taking part in events but again, I have found that it's the older generation that want them in print, the younger people are just happy to have a watermarked version on their Facebook page, they don't realise that in 5-10 years time they will wish they had got the actual print at the time. Older people who have made that mistake in the past are wiser to it.

Wiren · June 23, 2016

the dissapointment of expectations
The advice Sam has given is absolutely spot on.... I have been a Pro Account SM for several years... I too have done a few landscapes and not to break my arm patting my own back...., I have had some stunners in my day!

I even had a couple refurbishing a million dollar home who came across my work somewhere and debated over buying my stuff over the works of Sean Bagshaw who it a very noted PNW Landscape Photographer.

In my experience, online sales are a bit of a unicorn....

While I have run across a couple of them, it is very rare and never for anything of expense. I sold two images to other photographers from the East Coast who really liked my work from forum discussions......

Most all of my online sales, and this year has been my best, have been from event photography... this year my sales derive from Sports Action Photo's and have netted me a few hundred in net profit sales...... but I don't count on much more than that.

The advice from Sam and Denise stating that you need PR and to get your name known is what will drive folks to your site but not necessarily sales. People want a personal experience in the way of;

1. Meeting the photographer and liking them
2. Knowing the subject matter intently and loving your image of it (though most of the time you'll hear, I have a camera and fancy myself an artist too... i'll just take my own image of it!)
3. Least of all the tug of a great story behind the subject matter... in the difficulty of the capture or your vastly complicated intent behind the scene...... the message you are delivering that they can relate to in a personal, emotional, cerebral way..... good luck with that being enough for them to part with money just for the feeling your pic gives them

So, I would say that getting a pic to go viral on Reddit or some other form of Social Media is a great way for folks to get to know your art and visit your page.... now, go join a gallery or two and you can tell those visitors where they can see your work.

Good luck mate, but I bet you'll see <1% of sales driven by online visitors alone..... we've all cracked our teeth on that stone... if it were that easy, we'd all be rich already.

Cheers

Lee

Getting the hits but not the sales - is there more data available to me?

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