Will you sell your prints on our site?

[balaji_bal]

We operate 2 consumers printing sites with over 250,000 customers, these sites are similar to shutterfly and

snapfish. We are now launching a fine art prints site which will sell prints by professional and

semi-professional photographers.

 

Key characteristics of the site are:

 

1. The site is invitation only. We plan to only host editorially selected images so that we get a high quality of

images and our customers are not overwhelmed with content. Our view is that it also helps ensure that the

photographers have a better chance of generating revenue.

 

2. The pricing of prints is fixed. For example each image is available in 4 sizes with prices fixed at 50,100,150

and 200 USD. The price variation is primarily determined here by size. The idea here being that users could then

select by content as opposed to worrying too much about the price, once again ( in our opinion ) making it easier

for the photographer to generate revenue.

 

Is our business model is attractive to the photographer? Any feedback on the above 2 questions would be welcome.

 

Thanks in advance.

[jeff_schraeder1]

I have some prints that I would sell on such a site for those prices.<p>

Questions:<p>

Who stocks/ships the print?<br>

What is your anticipated commission?<br>

Do you anticipate selling matted or framed or offer a choice?<br>

Will you require exclusivity on the prints?

[balaji_bal]

Jeff, answers :

 

<br/>1. We print and ship the prints worldwide( we currently ship a few 100 thousand orders every year!). Printing is

on-demand and the originals are stored offline.

<br/>2. Our anticipated commission is 25% .

<br/>3. We offer a choice of substrates: Canvas ( mounted and unmounted ) Paper ( mounted on dibond or similar, or

just the print ) . We currently offer a very wide range of medium ( 2 canvas types and 6 paper types ) in a wide

range of formats for customers to print their own images on. But for this project we may limit it to a specific

range to make it easier for customers to decide.

<br/>4. No exclusivity required. But pictures must be of good visual quality.

[tonybynum]

so, are you an on-line gallery, or a print service, or a web image hosing service, or what? Who is your target audiance, the photographer who supplys the images and then sells a few, or is it the rest of the world who youre trying to reach to buy imges? and what would incline someone to go to your site? How do you generate traffic? If people want my prints they can get a hold of me. I see how your service would be of value, and potentially increase the numbers of people who see my material which, if your lucky, will translate to at least a few sales only I dont know what kind of images youre hosting or who is your audiance. You say fine art prints, but what's the subject matter and why would people go to your site over another?

 

Interesting idea. Need more information.

[pankaj purohit]

Yes Balaji, I am inerested too as a semi-pro. I would also like to get more information about such a website. You didn't mention the website here and not mentioned at your P community home page.

[robert_k1]

A post from a brand new member, and from someone claiming to have "2 consumers printing sites with over 250,000 customers" but not revealing the site urls. Proceed with caution.

[ronald_moravec1]

Go back and reread what Robert K said.

 

You have transfered high rez files to an unknown entity.

[balaji_bal]

I did not mention the sites since this post was to solicit feedback about the business model; and is not meant to

solicit business. I am using my real name by the way ( yes, you can google it :-). <br/><br/>

 

We are an online printing service who now wishes to add an online gallery of "quality photography" . We do not

offer image hosting. So we do have an existing user base who have bought prints of their own pictures from us

over the past years. The traffic is therefore existing traffic through our sites. We expect some of that user

base to be interested in purchasing fine art prints.<br/><br/>

 

Many of these users who use our printing services have also been requesting whether we could offer prints of

photographers, since very often what they are really looking for is something nice to decorate their home or

office with. The gallery is meant to serve this need that our users have.<br/><br/>

 

Our audience is therefore our existing users, and only to a lesser extent the photographer. Meaning we do not

wish to be a generic print and fulfillment solution for photographers. The reason is to maintain a quality of

work and enough revenue for individual photographers. From what we hear none of the sites which offer fine art

print collections are offering enough revenue for photographers since there is just too many photographers and

images on a site for any single photographer to make reasonable revenue.<br/><br/>

 

Will be happy to send out the URL of the beta site in a few weeks ( we plan to launch before Christmas ) to those

who are interested. Hope this helps.<br/><br/>

[john_macpherson]

I might be interested too - include me into any info that you send out. If you can maintain the quality of content it could work very well. Would also need to see what the contractual details encompass.

[balaji_bal]

Just so we can establish that we are not a run by night operation: One of our sites is www.colormailer.com .

[Ian Shalapata]

Include me on your mailing list, please.

[J.W. Wall]

So, this is an advertisement, then?

[omar havana]

Include me in your mailing list, please could be interested I'm semi pro, thanks

[beartooth1]

I'd be interested in more info when it's available....Ken

[benjamin_baker]

I would, looking at the link off your home page I see a few looks a year at you work it seems like a win win.

[douglasely]

Good day Balaji,

 

I too am interested.

 

Regards, Doug

[sould]

sounds good, i'm interested. a little excited even :)

[aimzoom]

Add me to the list. Thanks!