Photo Storefronts

[bnorm27]

Was just curious to see if any of the Dis Photo Board folks use any storefronts to sell your photos. While I'm far from a pro, I constantly have people teling me that I should try and sell some of the youth and high school sports photos that I take. I would certainly like to use any potential profits towards funding some new gear. If you've had any experiences, good or bad, with storefronts, please let me know.

I was considering Smugmug and Shutterfly Pro. If anyone knows of any others, I'm all ears!

Thanks!

 

[Suburbanmom]

I use www.zenfolio.com. They use mpix for their printing and have excellent customer support. With the Pro account, you can set your own prices.
If you use my referral code (1U7-W3H-RSE), you can save $5.00.

 

[gruZ]

The two (probably) most often mentioned services here are Zenfolio, as decribed above, and Smugmug, which I use. While I can only speak to Smugmug, they both have very good reputations here and other photo boards.

Smugmug can allow full customization if you require it, and the pro level also allows you to set prices. Their prints are outstanding, and they have the absolute best customer service of any organization (photographic or not) I have ever experienced. They also have a referral code, ERL3sXeBwNopQ, which will save you $5.

Either service is top notch, you can't go wrong either way!

 

[MICKEY88]

I agree with the previous posters.. I use zenfolio, awesome service, you can't go wrong with mpix for a print lab,

and as already noted a lot of people on here love smugmug..

if you want to check out my site, and see how the pricelist/ordering is set up I can give you the link

 

[bnorm27]

I agree with the previous posters.. I use zenfolio, awesome service, you can't go wrong with mpix for a print lab,

and as already noted a lot of people on here love smugmug..

if you want to check out my site, and see how the pricelist/ordering is set up I can give you the link

I would really like to take a look at your site. Please PM me the link. THANKS!

 

[jann1033]

i switched from zenfolio to imagekind a few months ago.
main reason i switched is i basically wasn't getting any traffic at zenfolio( i have gotten over 10x more hits there since end of feb than i did in a whole year with zen). the cost between the two is comparable,zen is $100 per yr imagekind is $94 a yr but you can also get it monthly for 7.99 if you want to try it for a month or pay as you go or free if you only have a few photos you want to put up in one gallery( i think like 50 or so) imagekind is more geared toward fine art prints, they only sell prints or greeting card. they have many different kinds of art, painting, collage, photography etc( they are a sister site of cafepress) which is better for me since mine is more cold selling, that way someone who is interested in buying a print goes to the site and hopefully likes one of mine. zen is probably more geared toward "event photos" so it probably is good if you can tell someone to go to your site to find a photo you took of their wedding, sports etc but stinks for cold selling, it just doesn't get enough traffic. imagekind also has a nice feature that you can virtual frame and mat your photos and sell them that way( with glass) if you want. unless they added it recently( they kept saying they would the whole yr i was there) zenfolio didn't offer matted and glassed framed shots. imagekind prints giclee prints ( the type of prints in museums etc, http://www.gicleeprint.net/abtGclee.shtm) which is nice, you just upload the edited photo and it states the sizes it will print( in other words you don't have to crop for normal frame sizes) it's the best i have found for me but may not be for everyone

 

[dmccarty]

For those using these store fronts do you make enough money to:
1 - Pay for the store front?
2 - Help fund your photography habit?
3 - Allow you to stay at the Three Bedroom Villa at AKL year round?

Later,
Dan

 

[MICKEY88]

For those using these store fronts do you make enough money to:
1 - Pay for the store front?
2 - Help fund your photography habit?
3 - Allow you to stay at the Three Bedroom Villa at AKL year round?

Later,
Dan

1. yes
2. yes
3. no, but last years profits from sept-dec. {just started selling last Sept}
did pay for 3 weeks in orlando, an annual pass to WDW, an annual pass to Seaworld and an annual pass to the space center..

4. I should add, my succes was due to a captive audience.. I was shooting high School sports, my website was listed in the program, they announced my website at halftime and the sports boosters talked about it at meetings, so all of my sales were to players parents, I haven't had any sales from people that just stumbled upon my site..

 

[Suburbanmom]

For those using these store fronts do you make enough money to:
1 - Pay for the store front? yes
2 - Help fund your photography habit? absolutely
3 - Allow you to stay at the Three Bedroom Villa at AKL year round? :lol: I wish! But we will be returning to WDW faster because of it.

 

[dmccarty]

I am impressed.

What kind of photos are you putting up for sale? Are you taking photos at an event and then letting people know about your account on the store front? Or do people surf in and find your photos?

Mickey88 I would be interested in viewing your site. Could you please send me the address.

You guys and gals have me pondering things....

Later,
Dan

 

[jann1033]

For those using these store fronts do you make enough money to:
1 - Pay for the store front?
2 - Help fund your photography habit?
3 - Allow you to stay at the Three Bedroom Villa at AKL year round?

Later,
Dan

1)yes
2)not really unless you count cheap discounted software
3)nope, more like a tent in a state park
zenfolio and microsoft office live ads( i have my website with them)both told me it's better if you are not doing event type photos to try offline sales as well to get a local following( mickey 88 also recommended that) ie take some stuff to a restaurant or someplace and see if they will post it. personally i think that would help( husband does faux finishes and still gets calls for work due to a restaurant he did almost 8 yrs ago that has changed hands twice but kept his number and the same finish). even with a website, link and a blog (and i was the top few entries on google for my name and some photos,) i still barely got any traffic from people who just "stopped by" i mean like a good week was more than 10, much less sales. I read somewhere you have to get an enormous amount of hits ( like a few thousand ) for one sale of fine art type photos. my sales were all from people who saw me/knew my name from someplace else then went to my site then the link to zenfolio . events are a totally different ball game since you have more of a captive audience. i know one guy on zen that claimed he made a lot of money for one sport's photos( "horses") and his stuff wasn't even in focus half the time( really it was bad, no decent composition, 1/2 the animal out of the frame or the rider out of focus, that kind of stuff) but he was the only one in that circle of whatever equestrian sport it was who took photos. i think any type of sports photos especially of kids teams would be more of a money maker than just straight "art " type photos. to bad for me i hate sports & don't have little kids
i recently heard a podcast about making a living in photography. the photographer said get into stuff like senior portraits, babies and weddings since even in a bad economy people still get those done, maybe not as many but still something.he said even stock isn't that good anymore since there are now sites that basically accept anything over 10pxs but pay a few cents .

 

[NateNLogansDad]

1. yes
2. yes
3. no, but last years profits from sept-dec. {just started selling last Sept}
did pay for 3 weeks in orlando, an annual pass to WDW, an annual pass to Seaworld and an annual pass to the space center..

4. I should add, my succes was due to a captive audience.. I was shooting high School sports, my website was listed in the program, they announced my website at halftime and the sports boosters talked about it at meetings, so all of my sales were to players parents, I haven't had any sales from people that just stumbled upon my site..

Could you send me some info on this? I'm still learning and am NO WHERE NEAR you guys for skill or equipment but I'd love to be up there some day.

 

[dmccarty]

Doing what Mickey88 is doing is what I had in mind. My kids play sports so I am at the games anyway. Getting ready to go in a few hours. Going to be 92 today! YUCK!

Over the last few months I have been looking at the various store fronts and I would bet they make the most money from the photographers subscription fees. I could see someone surfing into one of the sites and buying a photo to hang on the wall but with so many photos on the sites it would be fairly random on which photographers photo's got bought. There would have to be a way to LEAD/DIRECT the people to the site....

Some of the photos I have seen from local photographers on the store fronts were just plain aweful.

I did find Mickey88's website due to his Pirate photos in another thread. Nice. I get the Wall Street Journal so I'm looking for the Pirate photos to show up!

Later,
Dan

 

[MICKEY88]

I did find Mickey88's website due to his Pirate photos in another thread. Nice. I get the Wall Street Journal so I'm looking for the Pirate photos to show up!

Later,
Dan

WSJ emailed to verify my credit line, story is going to run either Saturday or monday, with an online photo essay, person who emailed wasn't certain...

photos online only
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