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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Question about selling prints online - one time thing
Jeff Jones, Photo Editor
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Gallup | NM | USA | Posted: 4:01 PM on 01.26.10 |
->> I am the yearbook adviser and journalism instructor for my high school, and this morning I was asked if I could take couples portraits at this weekend's dance. (We are in a smaller town and the guy we were using went out of business, so.....)
As a former newspaper shooter I did little actual printing, and I don't really want to start now. Is there a service that would allow me to simply edit and upload the photos and the students can order their prints on-line?
Here's the kicker - this is likely to be a one-time thing, and I am not looking to have some type of high volume account where I could break even by paying account set up fees.
What are some options that people are using?
Thanks! |
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Allen Murabayashi, Photographer
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New York | NY | USA | Posted: 4:04 PM on 01.26.10 |
->> sign up for photoshelter for one month: $29.99.
cancel when you're done.
automated fulfillment through EZPrints, Exposure Manager, and soon AdoramaPix.
disclosure: i'm the CEO. |
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Steve Violette, Photographer
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Gulf Breeze | FL | USA | Posted: 4:55 PM on 01.26.10 |
->> Shooting on speculation at dances is difficult at best - to get a good sales rate. The best thing you can do is to have them pre-pay for a package. You will take a couple of shots of each couple and then pick the best. Package deals of 8x10's or 5x7's and some wallets work best - but have them prepay. If you wait and have them go online your sales will most likely be close to zero - kids are pretty happy with their point and shoot images.
Face it, they will look at the images and find something wrong - IF they go to look, but if you pre-sell then you pick the best image and have the prints ordered from your regular lab and deliver the prints to the school a week later. When the kids pre-order make sure they write down their homeroom so you can sort and deliver easier when you get your prints back
Good luck
Steve |
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William Purnell, Photographer
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Wichita | Ks | | Posted: 5:26 PM on 01.26.10 |
| ->> Agree, pre-sale is the best option for higher volume. In my experience offering images for sale after the events with online viewing/purchase is easily a 70-90% reduction in sales than pushing the sale upfront at the event. |
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Kevin Seale, Photographer
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Crawfordsville | IN | United States | Posted: 5:36 PM on 01.26.10 |
| ->> One other minor suggestion, make your packages so that everything is divisible by two. (1) 8x10 or (1) 5x7 is not very useful for a couples type event. |
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Jeff Jones, Photo Editor
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Gallup | NM | USA | Posted: 5:59 PM on 01.26.10 |
->> Steve, William and Kevin -
thanks for the input. I was not thinking about total sales actually, just how to get them so the students can order and the prints get done with minimal hassle on my end. But, now that you bring it up, that might be the way to do it after all. |
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Jonathan Roberts, Photographer
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Louisville | KY | USA | Posted: 6:08 PM on 01.26.10 |
->> Steve, William,
How do you reasonably pre-sell packages in the schools for prom? Is it part of a prom package? Are schools open to handling the money for you?
Thanks. |
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Kevin Seale, Photographer
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Crawfordsville | IN | United States | Posted: 8:13 PM on 01.26.10 |
->> Jonathan,
Even though you didn't ask me, the schools I shoot for let me place the order forms in the office, make announcements over the PA and collect the completed forms and put them in a special pick up spot for me. Since like all photo sales at/through a school, they get their cut so are really good about helping promote events. I also accept orders on the spot at the event for the procrastinators. |
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William Purnell, Photographer
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Wichita | Ks | | Posted: 11:25 PM on 01.26.10 |
->> "Steve, William,
How do you reasonably pre-sell packages in the schools for prom? Is it part of a prom package? Are schools open to handling the money for you?"
I've done this a couple of ways in the past when I've done events like dances etc. And yes the schools are always involved of course, but like all things, different places handle things differently and communicating upfront with the school about everything is very important.
Normally I will send package order forms to the schools a couple weeks ahead of time to be passed out to the applicable students. Normally they say something like "orders to be turned in before or at the event" Then I have a check in table or person, they check in, I verify their order has been received, stand them in-front of the back drop and take the pictures.
Or a few times the schools just allowed me to set up the "photo opportunity" at an event, like sporting events or dances.
Then I prep the backdrop (if applicable), set up a sales table for orders with the package forms. Normally in this situation I'll have lots of flyers around with examples, lots of examples up with signs directing them to my booth etc.
But once at the booth, same thing applies.. fill out your order form, pay your money and then step up to the backdrop.
The main difference between the two different ways I've handled those things is in the advertising. How much the night of the event vs how much before the event etc. |
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Jonathan Roberts, Photographer
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Louisville | KY | USA | Posted: 8:35 AM on 01.27.10 |
| ->> Thanks Kevin and William. |
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Steve Violette, Photographer
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Gulf Breeze | FL | USA | Posted: 9:02 AM on 01.27.10 |
->> Jonathan,
pretty much the same as William. THe way we are moving forward with this it to have the group sponsoring the event put the package price into the price of the event ticket and work out the numbers with that group - generally it ends up being a basic package price of $20-$50 for 50-60% of the total number of tickets sold- depending on the package type. my experience has been only 30-40% of the number of tickets sold actually get their images made - kids are really happy with the P&S images they make on their own.
Photographers in my area have been walking away from this as a "chance to shoot" because the sales numbers have dropped so dramatically in the past 3 years and gone to a guaranteed min
good luck |
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John Howley, Photographer
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Circleville | OH | USA | Posted: 9:04 AM on 01.27.10 |
->> Jeff, something to think about is this could start a good way to raise funds for your yearbook program. At one of the high schools in my area, the yearbook advisor set up a dotphoto.com account (no charge) and they put up photos they shoot at games and other school events. Parents/students can order directly through the web site and the company takes care of all the printing and shipping and you get a commission off the purchases.
It's fairly simple to do and you make money to upgrade your equipment. This school has some pretty nice Canon pro gear its purchased by making money off of sales.
But as for the dance photos, I would definitely pass out an order form at school the week before and have them come to the dance with their form and money. |
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Jeff Jones, Photo Editor
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Gallup | NM | USA | Posted: 8:58 AM on 01.28.10 |
->> John -
using the money to help raise funds for the yearbook program (and student council, who sponsored the dance) is just what I was kicking around yesterday when the council adviser told me her ideas... she wanted to charge kids $5/photo and print them on her inkjet printer! She claims to "really know Photoshop" and before teaching she was an architect, but the idea that photos I take are just going to be banged out on somebody's printer does not make me want to do this. She said she would just use Picassa... and when I asked her about color spaces and monitor calibration I got blank stares.
Right now I am thinking of either using Printroom (free basic account) or just collecting orders and sending the whole shoot in as a one big order to a lab like Mpix.
Thanks for the heads-up on dotphoto.com - if I was going to be doing this on a regular basis I would certainly be looking at something like Photoshelter or Zenfolio, but since it is, at least right now, a one time thing I am not sure I want to spend $30 to set up an account when I may only have 20 or 30 orders total. |
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Jon L Hendricks, Photographer
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Hobart | IN | USA | Posted: 11:30 AM on 01.28.10 |
| ->> Photoreflect.com does not charge for hosting images but do charge about 18% for their fees per print. |
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Scott MacDonald, Photographer
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Salinas | CA | USA | Posted: 1:44 PM on 01.28.10 |
->> This discussion brings up something I've been wondering about: I would like to be able to sell prints on-site but have customers select and order their prints online after the event.
So, for example, the customer pays during the event, I send them home with a code and a url, they log on, select their prints, enter their code and the payment is taken care of. Prints are made and mailed to them.
Can anyone recommend/suggest a service that would help me accomplish this? |
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Steve Violette, Photographer
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Gulf Breeze | FL | USA | Posted: 3:06 PM on 01.28.10 |
->> Jeff,
As far as printing on site for the Prom - The kids are not going to want to carry the prints with them....they are there to dance/socialize.
As stated above get an up front fee and have the sponsoring group put the price in the ticket - then they actually sell this as a benefit when selling tickets. determine a way to record the file and names of students and their homerooms when you are shooting - organization is Key- and keep the package simple
good luck and let us know what you end up doing |
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Jeff Jones, Photo Editor
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Gallup | NM | USA | Posted: 8:30 PM on 01.28.10 |
->> Steve -
I have no plans to try to print on site. The student council advisor wanted me to take the photos, then she was going to print them at home and deliver the inkjet prints later. I totally agree that printing on-site would not be the best option - especially since the customers are students who will be able to get the photos later at the student council room.
The event is Saturday, and is a semi-formal dance, and the tickets were already on sale long before they came to me about photos.
But... If things work out and they want me to do this on a regular basis then the idea of making the photos a package with the ticket price is certainly one I will investigate. |
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