Prospect asks me (and Smugmug) question?

Markjay · March 19, 2008

A prospect asked the following question, which I would like to pass on to Smugmug to answer here, so everyone can see the response to the question.

Prospect asks:

how do you expect prospective buyers to download a licensed photo, where there is NO license information displayed.... until you go to checkout?
I did notice that on the first page after you click "Buy Photo" there is tabs at the top of your page and ON that tab it says this:

Downloads categories: Commercial

One is led to believe you can click that word Commercial since it is underlined and see the license terms but, nope, can't see any license info until you click Checkout. The cursor does turn into a hand icon when you mouse over the word Commercial but, it does not do anything, it's not "clickable".

There you have it. Answers?

Thank you in advance.

Andy · March 19, 2008

Good stuff, we can do a better job at that.
they just have to add it to their shopping cart, and it's on step one (they haven't 'bought' anything yet):

In the meantime, you can make a page on your site, showing the licenses. You can link them to it in your gallery descriptions. Lots of options.

Thanks for the great feedback, Mark (and prospect)!

Markjay · March 20, 2008

In response
Glad to see you saw the value in that question

Now your first response:
they just have to add it to their shopping cart, and it's on step one

Not really, it's actually step 2. You have to click
1. buy photo
2. checkout

Point is, if they don't know the license terms BEFORE they click checkout...
they are UNLIKELY to check out to begin with.

The second part of your response:
n the meantime, you can make a page on your site, showing the licenses. You can link them to it in your gallery descriptions. Lots of options.

Wouldn't it be SOOOO much easier, for Smugmug to just do one of the following....

A. make the underlined word that said commercial clickable so they can see the license terms right then and there

B. On the FIRST page they arrive at when clicking Buy Photo, have a link that says: click here for License Terms.

Yes / sure we can put up the license terms FOR smugmug but, I'm sure you'll agree that Smugmug really needs to take the initiative on this one.

Also note: if you ARE still serious about doing the stock photo site on Smugmug, things are going to have to be a lot more transparent from the 'get go' if you expect serious buyers to take your site seriously and save them time. If it takes too long to find what they need to know, you can't be making them click all over the place to find the most basic (and important) information. But, since you'be been developing this stock offering for many months now, I'm sure you've thought of all this stuff already, right

Andy wrote:

Good stuff, we can do a better job at that.
they just have to add it to their shopping cart, and it's on step one (they haven't 'bought' anything yet):

In the meantime, you can make a page on your site, showing the licenses. You can link them to it in your gallery descriptions. Lots of options.

Thanks for the great feedback, Mark (and prospect)!

Andy · March 20, 2008

Markjay wrote:

Glad to see you saw the value in that question

Now your first response:
they just have to add it to their shopping cart, and it's on step one

Not really, it's actually step 2. You have to click
1. buy photo
2. checkout

Point is, if they don't know the license terms BEFORE they click checkout...
they are UNLIKELY to check out to begin with.

The second part of your response:
n the meantime, you can make a page on your site, showing the licenses. You can link them to it in your gallery descriptions. Lots of options.

Wouldn't it be SOOOO much easier, for Smugmug to just do one of the following....

A. make the underlined word that said commercial clickable so they can see the license terms right then and there

B. On the FIRST page they arrive at when clicking Buy Photo, have a link that says: click here for License Terms.

Yes / sure we can put up the license terms FOR smugmug but, I'm sure you'll agree that Smugmug really needs to take the initiative on this one.

Also note: if you ARE still serious about doing the stock photo site on Smugmug, things are going to have to be a lot more transparent from the 'get go' if you expect serious buyers to take your site seriously and save them time. If it takes too long to find what they need to know, you can't be making them click all over the place to find the most basic (and important) information. But, since you'be been developing this stock offering for many months now, I'm sure you've thought of all this stuff already, right

Thanks Mark, Great stuff.

Markjay · March 20, 2008

Another note: downloading photos
While we're talking about tweaking the downloading of licsensed photos Andy....

Goofy: You click on buy photo
when they are buying a digital download there are things that really do not need to be seen by the digital download buyer.

They ckick Buy Photo
On the left side is the photo they've chosen.
Underneath is "Simplify this page"

And what do they see next?

PRINT options is what they see next!

That option (Simplify page) does not even belong there (on a digital downloading purchase)
In fact, maybe a GREAT PLACE to put the link that should say:

License Terms

Or like I said earlier where it now says Commercial

Catalog Options

<fieldset><legend>Hide Photo Finishes</legend>

Lustre
Matte
Gloss

</fieldset>

Hide products that need to be cropped

Hide products that cannot be purchased

Only show products in my cart

RogersDA · March 20, 2008

Andy wrote:

Thanks Mark, Great stuff.

I'll chime in here, too, and say that adding a link to the navbar with the language for the licensing is a great idea, even if the link was clickable. I did it a awhile ago. It's right up front and easy to find.

My primary concern here is that I have to monitor the licensing language to ensure that I capture any changes that might be coming.

Markjay · March 20, 2008

License language easy to find?
Well took a quick look and.....

it aint easy to find on your site

I clicked on nav bar for licensing (Image Licensing) and not a word of licensing language appears.

Just thought I'd point that out to ya. Thanks for contributing to the post.

RogersDA wrote:

I'll chime in here, too, and say that adding a link to the navbar with the language for the licensing is a great idea, even if the link was clickable. I did it a awhile ago. It's right up front and easy to find.

My primary concern here is that I have to monitor the licensing language to ensure that I capture any changes that might be coming.

RogersDA · March 20, 2008

Markjay wrote:

Well took a quick look and.....

it aint easy to find on your site
I clicked on nav bar for licensing (Image Licensing) and not a word of licensing language appears.

Just thought I'd point that out to ya. Thanks for contributing to the post.

Well - you got me really interested now. What do you see when you click on Image Licensing?

mrcoons · March 20, 2008

RogersDA wrote:

Well - you got me really interested now. What do you see when you click on Image Licensing?

I see 7 photos (very, very nice photos) with a description for each but nothing about the license conditions. Or am I missing something?

RogersDA · March 20, 2008

O.k. - bug fixed in my DGrin posting signature. It was linking to my old site. Should work now. Thanks for the heads-up on this.

mrcoons · March 20, 2008

RogersDA wrote:

O.k. - bug fixed in my DGrin posting signature. It was linking to my old site. Should work now. Thanks for the heads-up on this.

Yes, that's much better. Thanks for sharing this.

bham · March 20, 2008

Markjay wrote:

Wouldn't it be SOOOO much easier, for Smugmug to just do one of the following....

A. make the underlined word that said commercial clickable so they can see the license terms right then and there

I saw them underlined and guess always assumed that they were clickable with the text. Making it a link should be what smugmug does. That should be a very easy code change.

Prospect asks me (and Smugmug) question?

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