selling photos online?

[carol_monaco]

<p>Hi,<br>

does anyone have experience with digilabs service (or others) for selling photos online? I searched for this topic, but many of the answers were a few years old and I know things change quickly in the online world. Ideally, I'd like a service that can seamlessly integrate with my current website and could do fulfillment.<br>

thanks for any advice,<br>

Carol</p>

[mikael_karlsson]

<p>I like SmugMug on the very rare occasions when I need to put up images for sale as prints.</p>

[aimee_pieters]

<p>Check out <a href="http://www.collages.net">www.collages.net</a> They will fulfill your orders and ship them directly to your customer. Once you post, they do the rest....-Aimee</p>

[cathy_and_david_bock]

<p>We use Pictage.com for our clients. I find it to be a lot more user friendly than collages.net who I never ended up using since they weren't mac compatible when I first contacted them. I don't trust any business focused on photographers that isn't mac compatible.</p>

[jennifer_s3]

<p>I use instaproofs. They do not fulfill the order, but I prefer to quality check the prints before delivery anyway. Plus I have my own packaging. I have been very happy with them to date.</p>

[plavchak]

<p>I use Exposuremanager.com $99/yr . They charge a 10% commision, which is about the lowest out there.</p>

[nathan_meador]

<p>I also use smugmug. They have a 'coupon' that makes the first year $75, $150 every year after that for a pro account. Good selection of print sizes and materials. Easily customized.</p>

[aimee_pieters]

<blockquote>

<p>I don't trust any business focused on photographers that isn't mac compatible.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>This really isn't a fair statement to publish on a forum, especially when commenting about a specific business -don't you think? If their service isn't compatible with your workflow, that's OK, but to <em>not trust</em> them?</p>

 

[aimee_pieters]

<p>Marathon Press offers a great service. Please check with them for their latest offerings. I signed up for them to host my website for about $25/month & I can post up my images for FREE and there's NO commission on sales. Also, if they host for you, they offer lots of discounts on their other services. They're a GREAT company worth checking into....-Aimee</p>

[Spearhead]

<p>Right. I don't trust any recommendations that are based on equipment used rather than the important qualities of results and customer service.</p>

[nathaniel_vigeant]

<p>Carol,<br>

I'm also looking to integrate a checkout gallery into my website and would love to know which service you decide to go with. I was thinking of posting a similar question when I found yours. <br>

I saw an ad today for a service called Zenfolio, it looked pretty cool and I'm going to check it out. I'd still like to hear more detailed feedback from other photographers and their preferred sales gallery systems.</p>

[jason_brown9]

<p>I'm leaning towards Zenfolio because I currently do my prints through mpix.com. Try the Free Trials first. Basically, will come down to preferences.</p>

[david crockett]

<p>orderpicture.com. If you haven't heard of them, it is because they don't really advertise. They charge a one-time 29.95 setup (to keep people from just dumping pictures there). Beyond that, there are no monthly or yearly fees. They charge 12% of your net and that includes transaction fees. They boast over 600 gift items and from what I have seen, they are very nice.<br>

What really got me is the cart. Your customers can change borders, crop and edit photos and much more. When they are done, they see their final print in the actual gift item! There is no guessing on their part. If you want to see their cart, you are welcome to look at my site (<a href="http://www.davidcrockettphoto.com">www.davidcrockettphoto.com</a> - then click view your photos)<br>

Here is another biggie - and the reason they don't advertise - no co-branding! There is nothing in the cart that points to their site or other photographers. Even the HTML is generic!<br>

The way they get customers is word of mouth. They promote that by offering the photographer $50 lab credit (so if you go with them, <strong>please tell them I sent you</strong>).<br>

Hope this helps - David<br />David Crockett Photography<br /><a href="http://www.davidcrockettphoto.com">www.davidcrockettphoto.com</a></p>

[lesill]

<p>Okay, I'm adding a question because I have an upcoming event that I need a printing service for since I don't want to have to mail out photos to multiple parties. What about the quality of the paper these printers use? It seems to be the last thing any of them publish, when personally I think the quality of the paper should be one of the very first things considered. I ordered a sample photograph of one of my images from dotphoto and while the print itself was very good, I found the paper to be very thin and flimsy - in their defense however, it seems a lot of companies use "Kodak" Endura paper, which is what I was not impressed with. I think the Fuji archival paper(s) or better still, Epson would be a far better choice. So has anyone found someone that uses a paper such as those I listed or are you happy with Kodak Endura? (are your customers happy with it should probably be the question). Thanks for any further advice anyone can offer.<br>

Thanks, Lee<br>

L E Sill Photography<br>

www.lesill.com </p>

[mark_davidson]

<p><strong>What about the quality of the paper these printers use?</strong></p>

<p>They use Fuji or Kodak photo paper. Epson is an inkjet paper.<br /> Your opinion of the flimsiness is because of the comparison to a premium inkjet paper. The cost of inkjet is still way too high for photo labs to use in volume/price driven markets.</p>

<p>As for whether they will be happy? If you took a photo they like they will love it. Remember, these days you are competing against images taken with and viewed on cellphones.</p>

[mark_davidson]

<p>http://imagequix.com/</p>

[jason_brown9]

<p>[[Remember, these days you are competing against images taken with and viewed on cellphones.]]</p>

<p>I do not understand this comment. Seriously, why would someone want to print something off from a cell phone? A cell phone, come on! Don't think so.....</p>

<p>As for the rest, I agree. Especially, "If you took the photo, they like it and love it." The client, is too focused on the actual picture taken. There should be no problem going with a Kodak print-lab. I always choose Lustre. It's a little more, but looks awesome. No one has complained to me or brought it up.</p>

<p>Jason<br>

<a href="http://www.jsbrownstudio.com">www.jsbrownstudio.com</a></p>

 

[anchev]

<p>I see a lot of you use sales/print service sites. I have the following situation:</p>

<p>I have my own web site that I am upgrading currently. I design and code everything myself because I want to customize and program all the stuff for SEO reasons. So using other theme engines and templates is not an option for me.</p>

<p>Do you know how can I use my own site and still sell photos using a sales service? Like in the form of "Buy now" buttons that I can embed in the HTML code of my pages.</p>

<p>I have been thinking about coding a "Buy now" button that sends the user to some stock photography site where I can host the full-sized images. Anyway reading through this topic I see there could be some other (maybe better) options that some of you may know. So I would appreciate any information on the topic.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

[carol_monaco]

<p>Hi,<br>

thanks for all your advice. I'm still researching, but think I'll end up with smugmug or zenfolio.<br>

feel free to submit other comments!<br>

Carol</p>

[jason_brown9]

<p>Back again, I have read that smugmug is more customizeable but need to know HTML/CSS Style coding. They're a few help forums out there and on smugmug.com site to tie it in with your webpage look, making it not look like they left your website. Reason why i'm leaning towards Zenfolio is it's easy, quick, and LOVE the Mpix Print-lab. You can change Theme colors with Zenfolio but no HTML/CSS editing yet.</p>

<p>I'll probably be linking my 'Online Proof' page to my Zenfolio account or put a link to it somewhere. As for clients, I'll put their name on my 'Online Proof' page and link their event under/to my Zenfolio account. This I'm sure of.</p>

<p>If anyone else has any comments or suggestion for me as well. I'm open for suggestion. Thanks.</p>

<p>jason<br /> <a href="http://www.jsbrownstudio.com">www.jsbrownstudio.com</a></p>

[anchev]

<p>I wonder if people look for prints or they look more for buying the digital photos.<br>

What do you think?</p>