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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Selling Personal Use Downloads
Kevin Krows, Photographer
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Forsyth | IL | USA | Posted: 9:35 PM on 07.02.11 |
->> Creating a separate thread to survey thoughts relative to selling personal use downloads over the web.
I've been very resistant to becoming overly aggressive in this area but as I watch how my wife, my kids, and their friends are using photographs these days I beginning to see that my defensive position to marketing downloads may not be in step with how people view, use, and share images.
I'm 51 and somewhat set in my ways. However, I'm not stupid and try to pay close attention to the needs of all my clients and keep an open mind.
Ipads, Iphones, digital picture frames, social media web sites, electronic photo wallets,... It ain't just screen savers and power point slide shows anymore is it.
Currently, I just offer one personal use download size 1800x1200 px @300ppi and charge about $30 each. This gives the customer the ability to make small prints and use it for digital devices and social media. Haven't been brave enough to offer smaller sizes designed for specific use (1024x728 for Ipads or 600x400 for web).
Your thoughts?? |
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Chris Hunt, Photographer
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Seattle | WA | USA | Posted: 10:47 PM on 07.02.11 |
->> In my experience, most people that use images on their iPads, iPhones, and/or wallpaper are satisfied with doing a screen grab and calling it good, watermark and all. Offering a lower-resolution image at a much lower price (500px @ $9.99) might give those with discretionary income more motivation to purchase...
I've not tried this myself, but I do know from personal experience that I tend to buy a lot of stuff I don't need on the Apple App Store just because it's so cheap. Those little purchases add up. |
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David Welker, Photographer, Student/Intern
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Springfield | MO | USA | Posted: 12:23 AM on 07.03.11 |
->> I sell four different sizes:
Facebook- 600px on the long side. These are usually some of the best selling.
Small- 800px on the longest side
Medium- 1024px
Large- Full File - 3/4px
My pricing structure is based to make these valuable products to offer. Many times the Facebook size makes it into the order simply because the parents want prints or something large enough to print, and they order both. Seems to work. |
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Denny Kyser, Photographer
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Russell | Pa. | United States of America | Posted: 10:13 AM on 07.12.11 |
->> I have been thinking of doing this because its what people want. I hate the fact that they are getting away from prints but not much we can do about that.
I am curious as to how these sell for people. |
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Butch Miller, Photographer
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Lock Haven | PA | USA | Posted: 10:43 AM on 07.12.11 |
->> I do agree ... with the advent of really affordable digital frames, tablets and the explosion of images used socially online ... more and more clients are requesting digital files ... though we haven't reached the point os a paperless society ... we are trending to a less paper used society ... I also don't see the sale of prints ending anytime soon ...
I recently started offering digital files for action sports and events, they are not instant downloads, I email them to the client after the payment has cleared ... it has been well received so far ... I offer a 500 px FB/web use size and a 2100 px suitable for printing to 5x7 ... clients seem pleased so far ... I sell them for 2x the closest print size ...
If it picks up, my online shopping cart does facilitate instant download ... though it would take up much more server space to keep several thousand extra higher resolution files on hand to meet the need ... |
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Mike Janes, Photographer
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Attica | NY | USA | Posted: 1:40 PM on 07.12.11 |
->> I started offering digital downloads in 2009 at the request of a parent who went out of their way to request the option and then never bought anything once they were available. Pricing was a battle I had with myself before basically just going along the same line as MaxPreps, minus the really small version they had and have since dropped from their offerings as well. Figured would stick to that price range so there was something to point to and have a comparison if any parents wanted to bring it up, nobody ever has.
Digital sales are still FAR behind print sales, but they do pop up every once in awhile. Would guess for every 20-25 print orders there's a digital, or near that range. The biggest problem you run into is that parents who buy them think they can do anything and everything with them, even though there's an agreement that they are supposed to read, once it's on their computer it's all of a sudden rights free in their eyes. Couple problems ran into were...
- Bat manufacturer bought a small digital file and used it on their website promoting the bat being used at the event, this after I told him there would be a licensing fee and the digital downloads were not meant to be used commercially, he didn't listen and went ahead with it anyways.
Now, I put on my site the digital downloads are for parents and the players only - however, processed this one because figured he was a parent as ONLY they had the url to the images - so I assumed, and assumed wrong. Turned out the kid in the photo sent him the link as it was a local business.
- Newspaper editor emailed me saying he saw the IPTC of an image a parent had sent in to him to use and he wanted to check on copyright issues (proactive, yes it amazed me to!) This of course has happened with prints as well, so nothing new there - just easier on them now.
- Even though it says ONE file for some reason had a lot of parents think it was a CD of say 100 images, one guy even offered me $30 for all images instead of $40 for all images (even though it's $40 for one).
So now I have an agreement form, they have to write "accept" to acknowledge they read the terms of agreement (which I doubt most do). Still get a lot of people who don't even bother reading the three short sentences of instruction, often get instead of "accept" their name, initials, or something totally random. Just makes you shake your head wondering how they go through the entire process and just can't take 5 seconds to read it.
Anyways, after they accept the terms I email the image AND the terms of agreement to them so there is no way they can say they didn't know this or that, it's all right there in black and white. Very easy process and personally avoid having digital downloads immediately available, just not how I want it set up.
Biggest thing is pricing accordingly, have to remember you lose all print sales of that image once you sell a full digital file. I see some blog posts and others that have them priced about the same as an 8x10 and to me that makes no sense at all, $10-25 for a full digital file to me is just plain out too cheap! I have a web ready at $10, one that can make small prints at $15, and the full is $40. Most popular is the medium, then the large, small hardly ever. There are bulk discounts built in to but they start at 20 images - so you have to get up there pretty good before they kick in.
Overall, even with the few problems, it's been a positive experience. We as a society are moving more digital, but as of right now the prints still are king. I know some fight it for now, selling digital, but they won't be able to hold out forever as it's just the way things are moving. |
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Clark Brooks, Photo Editor, Photographer
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Urbana | IL | USA | Posted: 2:05 PM on 07.12.11 |
->> Kevin,
My thoughts are the world is definitely on the move to digital display platforms. While at the moment, though they have been made available to our readers for several years, I have see very few requests for digital files. IMHO, offering digital files at the same price or lower than the current print prices as I have seen many people do in order to make a fast buck, is illogical and certainly qualifies as a poor business practice in my mind.
Many years ago, I adopted a price structure based on the fact that over the lifetime of an image it likely to be printed/used by the end customer at least three times. Mindful that once a file has been delivered, unless the customer damages or looses the file, a photographer will no longer be able to generate any additional income from that client for that image again. To stay in this business for the long haul, it makes sense price digital files at a rate that compensate for the loss of possible future revenue. Therefore, any file requested at a resolution suitable for printing is available at 3x the current print price at that size for a personal use license. Butch's pricing at 2x is a good start and I would like actually see our price increase to 4x given the current state of inflation.
Should you offer digital files? By all means. The sooner the better. The one thing I recommend is consider the loss of future revenue when developing your pricing structure. |
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