sandiegojoey Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 A few weeks ago I partnered with a local photographer to shoot a weekend softball tournament. We shot all day Saturday, chose the best 600 photo's out of the 3000 and sold them on Sunday while also shooting the second day of the event. We handed our flyers and let everyone know that there would be many more photo's available on the website. Well, it didn't work too well. We sold $2000 worth of photo's during the event and $200 since! It looks like catching people in the moment is critical to shooting a sports event. For the softball tournament we took the memory chips to a local printer and printed in the middle of the night....no fun! And, we had to pre-pay for images and hope they sold the following day.....not good, and we were stuck with about 100 unsold photo's. There has to be a way to display more photo's on the spot, take orders, and have the processing done locally. I currently have a smugmug account and they won't allow me to use another lab, so smugmug is out. I need to find a web host that will allow me to upload my photo's, set my own prices, and send my print request to various local labs like costco, CVS, etc etc. Does anyone out there have experience with shooting sports events and selling on site? thanks, Joey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
szrimaging Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 <p>Why do you need to do it through the web? Got a spare laptop? Take it with you, and throw the proofs up into a slideshow.</p> <p>Even better, if you have a decent source of power, bring an Epson with you, make prints moments after the game.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerry_milroy Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 <p>What type of printer would you suggest for doing this (make and model) I have thought of doing this with volleyball. You will always get more sells at the event then after. By idea is to use a lap top with a large seperate montior to get the attension.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagleeyephotography Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 <p>I use Imagequix and the service lets you print local if you choose to</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
szrimaging Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 <p>I was going to start doing the whole printer thing with night race leagues here, but I didn't. I used to have an Epson R1800, and that would almost be perfect for the job. Otherwise you could go with the Epson's right below that level if you didn't need to do 13x19 prints.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc453 Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 <p>The Printer(s) is the Sony UP-DR 200 which makes a 5X7 print in about 15 seconds-they say eight seconds, but that's under ideal conditions-not in real life. Of course there are a few other catches. 1. the printer cost about $1200 on sale. 2. The paper and ink (its dye sub) costs about $350, but you get 700 prints. 3 the printer weighs about 30 pounds and uses AC power. Mitsubishi also makes a similar printer which is pretty good. Truth be told, you will sell about 50 to 100 prints per outing at any sporting event, doing better at the beginning of the month (when people have more money.) You may sell bigger photos online, but you will sell more of these at the event and quicker too. These printers are a long time investment and will give a good ROI if you work at it. Most people don't have the patience and that's why you can find a lot of these on Ebay for a substantial discount.<br> Imaging spectrum <a href="http://www.imagingspectrum.com/">http://www.imagingspectrum.com/</a> is a good source for these kinds of printers.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandiegojoey Posted October 18, 2009 Author Share Posted October 18, 2009 I've really immersed myself in this topic in the past few days. Here's one of the best workflow discussions I've found on the net when it comes to event print sales, it encompasses everything I've already learned, albeit the hard way! <a href="mhtml:{D788DB20-370E-4CEB-B46B-BAACDA2B486E}mid://00000105/!x-usc:http://www.flickr.com/groups/sonysnaplab/discuss/72157622482463133/" target="_blank">www.flickr.com/groups/sonysnaplab/discuss/72157622482463133/</a> I've found that photography is much like any other retail sales function in that unless a person leaves their home deliberately seeking a photo of themselves, sales are limited to impulse buying. The retail industry has already proven that merchandising and efficiency will get people to make impulse purchases. I've found from experience that the same goes for sporting event print sales. I've done a dozen or so large events with limited success, enough to cover cost and put a small amount into my pocket. Initially I focused on image quality, number of photo's, and advertisement/ website exposure. I figured that if I can produce a once in a lifetime photo that people will buy. I was getting hundreds, and in some cases thousands of hits/views, but few sales. So, I reduced my price when they didn't sell, and still minimal results. I've since found that although those are necessary parts of the equation, like any other retail business venture it ultimately comes down to sales presentation, merchandising, and impulse buying. <br />I recently did an international adult softball tournament with another photographer to test our theory. After covering several large events each, we agreed that the key to making money would be point-of-sale presentation and efficiency rather than a cool website with great photo's and great prices. Well unfortunately we were right, and regretfully we were unable to deliver in an efficient way due to limited print capability. We didn't have a printer on site, so the idea was to shoot all day Saturday, edit and print at a local 24-hour photo lab, then sell on Sunday while still shooting the remainder of games. We shot more than 2000 photo's on day one and decided to choose the best 600 to display and print, and the rest would being uploaded to our Snapfish website for sale on the web. We made announcements, handed out flyers and sent emails to the participants to let them know about the websites. To make a long story short, sales were 10:1 between the day of sales and web sales! For every ten dollars in sales we made during the event we only sold $1 worth afterwards on the website. <br /><br />This confirmed what we already knew, only this time we were able to verify the fact that people will purchase the photo's when it's effortless and they're still caught up in the moment. <br /><br />This is when I decided to search for an efficient and cost effective method of printing on site. I scoured the web for weeks, two or more hours a day, and found that the Sony Snaplab is the most viable solution for what we're doing. However, there is very little support, information, or feedback from users available on the net. Most of what I found in various forums was a sentence or two about the snaplab product or event workflow, or a salesperson throwing a bunch of specs at me. <br /><br />I plan on buying one or two of these machines, but haven't settled on a model, and will continue to give feedback in the new forum as I learn more. There is at least one guy in the group, Ted, who has sold a bunch of Snaplabs and seems to have a lot of good info.<br /> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandiegojoey Posted October 18, 2009 Author Share Posted October 18, 2009 <p>I've really immersed myself in this topic in the past few days. Here's one of the best workflow discussions I've found on the net when it comes to event print sales, it encompasses everything I've already learned, albeit the hard way! <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/sonysnaplab/discuss/72157622482463133/" target="_blank">www.flickr.com/groups/sonysnaplab/discuss/72157622482463133/</a><br> I've found that photography is much like any other retail sales function in that unless a person leaves their home deliberately seeking a photo of themselves, sales are limited to impulse buying. The retail industry has already proven that merchandising and efficiency will get people to make impulse purchases.<br> I've found from experience that the same goes for sporting event print sales. I've done a dozen or so large events with limited success, enough to cover cost and put a small amount into my pocket. Initially I focused on image quality, number of photo's, and advertisement/ website exposure. I figured that if I can produce a once in a lifetime photo that people will buy. I was getting hundreds, and in some cases thousands of hits/views, but few sales. So, I reduced my price when they didn't sell, and still minimal results.<br> I've since found that although those are necessary parts of the equation, like any other retail business venture it ultimately comes down to sales presentation, merchandising, and impulse buying.<br> I recently did an international adult softball tournament with another photographer to test our theory. After covering several large events each, we agreed that the key to making money would be point-of-sale presentation and efficiency rather than a cool website with great photo's and great prices. Well unfortunately we were right, and regretfully we were unable to deliver in an efficient way due to limited print capability. We didn't have a printer on site, so the idea was to shoot all day Saturday, edit and print at a local 24-hour photo lab, then sell on Sunday while still shooting the remainder of games. We shot more than 2000 photo's on day one and decided to choose the best 600 to display and print, and the rest would being uploaded to our Snapfish website for sale on the web. We made announcements, handed out flyers and sent emails to the participants to let them know about the websites. To make a long story short, sales were 10:1 between the day of sales and web sales! For every ten dollars in sales we made during the event we only sold $1 worth afterwards on the website. <br /><br />This confirmed what we already knew, only this time we were able to verify the fact that people will purchase the photo's when it's effortless and they're still caught up in the moment. <br /><br />This is when I decided to search for an efficient and cost effective method of printing on site. I scoured the web for weeks, two or more hours a day, and found that the Sony Snaplab is the most viable solution for what we're doing. However, there is very little support, information, or feedback from users available on the net. Most of what I found in various forums was a sentence or two about the snaplab product or event workflow, or a salesperson throwing a bunch of specs at me. <br /><br />I plan on buying one or two of these machines, but haven't settled on a model, and will continue to give feedback in the new forum as I learn more. There is at least one guy in the group, Ted, who has sold a bunch of Snaplabs and seems to have a lot of good info</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandiegojoey Posted October 18, 2009 Author Share Posted October 18, 2009 I've really immersed myself in this topic in the past few days. Here's one of the best workflow discussions I've found on the net when it comes to event print sales, it encompasses everything I've already learned, albeit the hard way! <a href="mhtml:{D788DB20-370E-4CEB-B46B-BAACDA2B486E}mid://00000105/!x-usc:http://www.flickr.com/groups/sonysnaplab/discuss/72157622482463133/" target="_blank">www.flickr.com/groups/sonysnaplab/discuss/72157622482463133/</a> I've found that photography is much like any other retail sales function in that unless a person leaves their home deliberately seeking a photo of themselves, sales are limited to impulse buying. The retail industry has already proven that merchandising and efficiency will get people to make impulse purchases. I've found from experience that the same goes for sporting event print sales. I've done a dozen or so large events with limited success, enough to cover cost and put a small amount into my pocket. Initially I focused on image quality, number of photo's, and advertisement/ website exposure. I figured that if I can produce a once in a lifetime photo that people will buy. I was getting hundreds, and in some cases thousands of hits/views, but few sales. So, I reduced my price when they didn't sell, and still minimal results. I've since found that although those are necessary parts of the equation, like any other retail business venture it ultimately comes down to sales presentation, merchandising, and impulse buying. <br />I recently did an international adult softball tournament with another photographer to test our theory. After covering several large events each, we agreed that the key to making money would be point-of-sale presentation and efficiency rather than a cool website with great photo's and great prices. Well unfortunately we were right, and regretfully we were unable to deliver in an efficient way due to limited print capability. We didn't have a printer on site, so the idea was to shoot all day Saturday, edit and print at a local 24-hour photo lab, then sell on Sunday while still shooting the remainder of games. We shot more than 2000 photo's on day one and decided to choose the best 600 to display and print, and the rest would being uploaded to our Snapfish website for sale on the web. We made announcements, handed out flyers and sent emails to the participants to let them know about the websites. To make a long story short, sales were 10:1 between the day of sales and web sales! For every ten dollars in sales we made during the event we only sold $1 worth afterwards on the website. <br /><br />This confirmed what we already knew, only this time we were able to verify the fact that people will purchase the photo's when it's effortless and they're still caught up in the moment. <br /><br />This is when I decided to search for an efficient and cost effective method of printing on site. I scoured the web for weeks, two or more hours a day, and found that the Sony Snaplab is the most viable solution for what we're doing. However, there is very little support, information, or feedback from users available on the net. Most of what I found in various forums was a sentence or two about the snaplab product or event workflow, or a salesperson throwing a bunch of specs at me. <br /><br />I plan on buying one or two of these machines, but haven't settled on a model, and will continue to give feedback in the new forum as I learn more. There is at least one guy in the group, Ted, who has sold a bunch of Snaplabs and seems to have a lot of good info.<br /> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandiegojoey Posted October 18, 2009 Author Share Posted October 18, 2009 I've really immersed myself in this topic in the past few days. Here's one of the best workflow discussions I've found on the net when it comes to event print sales, it encompasses everything I've already learned, albeit the hard way! <a href="mhtml:{D788DB20-370E-4CEB-B46B-BAACDA2B486E}mid://00000105/!x-usc:http://www.flickr.com/groups/sonysnaplab/discuss/72157622482463133/" target="_blank">www.flickr.com/groups/sonysnaplab/discuss/72157622482463133/</a> I've found that photography is much like any other retail sales function in that unless a person leaves their home deliberately seeking a photo of themselves, sales are limited to impulse buying. The retail industry has already proven that merchandising and efficiency will get people to make impulse purchases. I've found from experience that the same goes for sporting event print sales. I've done a dozen or so large events with limited success, enough to cover cost and put a small amount into my pocket. Initially I focused on image quality, number of photo's, and advertisement/ website exposure. I figured that if I can produce a once in a lifetime photo that people will buy. I was getting hundreds, and in some cases thousands of hits/views, but few sales. So, I reduced my price when they didn't sell, and still minimal results. I've since found that although those are necessary parts of the equation, like any other retail business venture it ultimately comes down to sales presentation, merchandising, and impulse buying. <br />I recently did an international adult softball tournament with another photographer to test our theory. After covering several large events each, we agreed that the key to making money would be point-of-sale presentation and efficiency rather than a cool website with great photo's and great prices. Well unfortunately we were right, and regretfully we were unable to deliver in an efficient way due to limited print capability. We didn't have a printer on site, so the idea was to shoot all day Saturday, edit and print at a local 24-hour photo lab, then sell on Sunday while still shooting the remainder of games. We shot more than 2000 photo's on day one and decided to choose the best 600 to display and print, and the rest would being uploaded to our Snapfish website for sale on the web. We made announcements, handed out flyers and sent emails to the participants to let them know about the websites. To make a long story short, sales were 10:1 between the day of sales and web sales! For every ten dollars in sales we made during the event we only sold $1 worth afterwards on the website. <br /><br />This confirmed what we already knew, only this time we were able to verify the fact that people will purchase the photo's when it's effortless and they're still caught up in the moment. <br /><br />This is when I decided to search for an efficient and cost effective method of printing on site. I scoured the web for weeks, two or more hours a day, and found that the Sony Snaplab is the most viable solution for what we're doing. However, there is very little support, information, or feedback from users available on the net. Most of what I found in various forums was a sentence or two about the snaplab product or event workflow, or a salesperson throwing a bunch of specs at me. <br /><br />I plan on buying one or two of these machines, but haven't settled on a model, and will continue to give feedback in the new forum as I learn more. There is at least one guy in the group, Ted, who has sold a bunch of Snaplabs and seems to have a lot of good info.<br /> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandiegojoey Posted October 18, 2009 Author Share Posted October 18, 2009 <p>I've really immersed myself in this topic in the past few days. Here's one of the best workflow discussions I've found on the net when it comes to event print sales, it encompasses everything I've already learned, albeit the hard way! <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/sonysnaplab/discuss/72157622482463133/" target="_blank">www.flickr.com/groups/sonysnaplab/discuss/72157622482463133/</a><br> I've found that photography is much like any other retail sales function in that unless a person leaves their home deliberately seeking a photo of themselves, sales are limited to impulse buying. The retail industry has already proven that merchandising and efficiency will get people to make impulse purchases.<br> I've found from experience that the same goes for sporting event print sales. I've done a dozen or so large events with limited success, enough to cover cost and put a small amount into my pocket. Initially I focused on image quality, number of photo's, and advertisement/ website exposure. I figured that if I can produce a once in a lifetime photo that people will buy. I was getting hundreds, and in some cases thousands of hits/views, but few sales. So, I reduced my price when they didn't sell, and still minimal results.<br> I've since found that although those are necessary parts of the equation, like any other retail business venture it ultimately comes down to sales presentation, merchandising, and impulse buying.<br> I recently did an international adult softball tournament with another photographer to test our theory. After covering several large events each, we agreed that the key to making money would be point-of-sale presentation and efficiency rather than a cool website with great photo's and great prices. Well unfortunately we were right, and regretfully we were unable to deliver in an efficient way due to limited print capability. We didn't have a printer on site, so the idea was to shoot all day Saturday, edit and print at a local 24-hour photo lab, then sell on Sunday while still shooting the remainder of games. We shot more than 2000 photo's on day one and decided to choose the best 600 to display and print, and the rest would being uploaded to our Snapfish website for sale on the web. We made announcements, handed out flyers and sent emails to the participants to let them know about the websites. To make a long story short, sales were 10:1 between the day of sales and web sales! For every ten dollars in sales we made during the event we only sold $1 worth afterwards on the website. <br /><br />This confirmed what we already knew, only this time we were able to verify the fact that people will purchase the photo's when it's effortless and they're still caught up in the moment. <br /><br />This is when I decided to search for an efficient and cost effective method of printing on site. I scoured the web for weeks, two or more hours a day, and found that the Sony Snaplab is the most viable solution for what we're doing. However, there is very little support, information, or feedback from users available on the net. Most of what I found in various forums was a sentence or two about the snaplab product or event workflow, or a salesperson throwing a bunch of specs at me. <br /><br />I plan on buying one or two of these machines, but haven't settled on a model, and will continue to give feedback in the new forum as I learn more. There is at least one guy in the group, Ted, who has sold a bunch of Snaplabs and seems to have a lot of good info</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandiegojoey Posted October 18, 2009 Author Share Posted October 18, 2009 <p>I've really immersed myself in this topic in the past few days. Here's one of the best workflow discussions I've found on the net when it comes to event print sales, it encompasses everything I've already learned, albeit the hard way! <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/sonysnaplab/discuss/72157622482463133/" target="_blank">www.flickr.com/groups/sonysnaplab/discuss/72157622482463133/</a><br> I've found that photography is much like any other retail sales function in that unless a person leaves their home deliberately seeking a photo of themselves, sales are limited to impulse buying. The retail industry has already proven that merchandising and efficiency will get people to make impulse purchases.<br> I've found from experience that the same goes for sporting event print sales. I've done a dozen or so large events with limited success, enough to cover cost and put a small amount into my pocket. Initially I focused on image quality, number of photo's, and advertisement/ website exposure. I figured that if I can produce a once in a lifetime photo that people will buy. I was getting hundreds, and in some cases thousands of hits/views, but few sales. So, I reduced my price when they didn't sell, and still minimal results.<br> I've since found that although those are necessary parts of the equation, like any other retail business venture it ultimately comes down to sales presentation, merchandising, and impulse buying.<br> I recently did an international adult softball tournament with another photographer to test our theory. After covering several large events each, we agreed that the key to making money would be point-of-sale presentation and efficiency rather than a cool website with great photo's and great prices. Well unfortunately we were right, and regretfully we were unable to deliver in an efficient way due to limited print capability. We didn't have a printer on site, so the idea was to shoot all day Saturday, edit and print at a local 24-hour photo lab, then sell on Sunday while still shooting the remainder of games. We shot more than 2000 photo's on day one and decided to choose the best 600 to display and print, and the rest would being uploaded to our Snapfish website for sale on the web. We made announcements, handed out flyers and sent emails to the participants to let them know about the websites. To make a long story short, sales were 10:1 between the day of sales and web sales! For every ten dollars in sales we made during the event we only sold $1 worth afterwards on the website. <br /><br />This confirmed what we already knew, only this time we were able to verify the fact that people will purchase the photo's when it's effortless and they're still caught up in the moment. <br /><br />This is when I decided to search for an efficient and cost effective method of printing on site. I scoured the web for weeks, two or more hours a day, and found that the Sony Snaplab is the most viable solution for what we're doing. However, there is very little support, information, or feedback from users available on the net. Most of what I found in various forums was a sentence or two about the snaplab product or event workflow, or a salesperson throwing a bunch of specs at me. <br /><br />I plan on buying one or two of these machines, but haven't settled on a model, and will continue to give feedback in the new forum as I learn more. There is at least one guy in the group, Ted, who has sold a bunch of Snaplabs and seems to have a lot of good info</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandiegojoey Posted October 18, 2009 Author Share Posted October 18, 2009 <p>I've really immersed myself in this topic in the past few days. Here's one of the best workflow discussions I've found on the net when it comes to event print sales, it encompasses everything I've already learned, albeit the hard way! <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/sonysnaplab/discuss/72157622482463133/" target="_blank">www.flickr.com/groups/sonysnaplab/discuss/72157622482463133/</a><br> I've found that photography is much like any other retail sales function in that unless a person leaves their home deliberately seeking a photo of themselves, sales are limited to impulse buying. The retail industry has already proven that merchandising and efficiency will get people to make impulse purchases.<br> I've found from experience that the same goes for sporting event print sales. I've done a dozen or so large events with limited success, enough to cover cost and put a small amount into my pocket. Initially I focused on image quality, number of photo's, and advertisement/ website exposure. I figured that if I can produce a once in a lifetime photo that people will buy. I was getting hundreds, and in some cases thousands of hits/views, but few sales. So, I reduced my price when they didn't sell, and still minimal results.<br> I've since found that although those are necessary parts of the equation, like any other retail business venture it ultimately comes down to sales presentation, merchandising, and impulse buying.<br> I recently did an international adult softball tournament with another photographer to test our theory. After covering several large events each, we agreed that the key to making money would be point-of-sale presentation and efficiency rather than a cool website with great photo's and great prices. Well unfortunately we were right, and regretfully we were unable to deliver in an efficient way due to limited print capability. We didn't have a printer on site, so the idea was to shoot all day Saturday, edit and print at a local 24-hour photo lab, then sell on Sunday while still shooting the remainder of games. We shot more than 2000 photo's on day one and decided to choose the best 600 to display and print, and the rest would being uploaded to our Snapfish website for sale on the web. We made announcements, handed out flyers and sent emails to the participants to let them know about the websites. To make a long story short, sales were 10:1 between the day of sales and web sales! For every ten dollars in sales we made during the event we only sold $1 worth afterwards on the website. <br /><br />This confirmed what we already knew, only this time we were able to verify the fact that people will purchase the photo's when it's effortless and they're still caught up in the moment. <br /><br />This is when I decided to search for an efficient and cost effective method of printing on site. I scoured the web for weeks, two or more hours a day, and found that the Sony Snaplab is the most viable solution for what we're doing. However, there is very little support, information, or feedback from users available on the net. Most of what I found in various forums was a sentence or two about the snaplab product or event workflow, or a salesperson throwing a bunch of specs at me. <br /><br />I plan on buying one or two of these machines, but haven't settled on a model, and will continue to give feedback in the new forum as I learn more. There is at least one guy in the group, Ted, who has sold a bunch of Snaplabs and seems to have a lot of good info</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandiegojoey Posted October 18, 2009 Author Share Posted October 18, 2009 <p>I've really immersed myself in this topic in the past few days. Here's one of the best workflow discussions I've found on the net when it comes to event print sales, it encompasses everything I've already learned, albeit the hard way! <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/sonysnaplab/discuss/72157622482463133/" target="_blank">www.flickr.com/groups/sonysnaplab/discuss/72157622482463133/</a><br> I've found that photography is much like any other retail sales function in that unless a person leaves their home deliberately seeking a photo of themselves, sales are limited to impulse buying. The retail industry has already proven that merchandising and efficiency will get people to make impulse purchases.<br> I've found from experience that the same goes for sporting event print sales. I've done a dozen or so large events with limited success, enough to cover cost and put a small amount into my pocket. Initially I focused on image quality, number of photo's, and advertisement/ website exposure. I figured that if I can produce a once in a lifetime photo that people will buy. I was getting hundreds, and in some cases thousands of hits/views, but few sales. So, I reduced my price when they didn't sell, and still minimal results.<br> I've since found that although those are necessary parts of the equation, like any other retail business venture it ultimately comes down to sales presentation, merchandising, and impulse buying.<br> I recently did an international adult softball tournament with another photographer to test our theory. After covering several large events each, we agreed that the key to making money would be point-of-sale presentation and efficiency rather than a cool website with great photo's and great prices. Well unfortunately we were right, and regretfully we were unable to deliver in an efficient way due to limited print capability. We didn't have a printer on site, so the idea was to shoot all day Saturday, edit and print at a local 24-hour photo lab, then sell on Sunday while still shooting the remainder of games. We shot more than 2000 photo's on day one and decided to choose the best 600 to display and print, and the rest would being uploaded to our Snapfish website for sale on the web. We made announcements, handed out flyers and sent emails to the participants to let them know about the websites. To make a long story short, sales were 10:1 between the day of sales and web sales! For every ten dollars in sales we made during the event we only sold $1 worth afterwards on the website. <br /><br />This confirmed what we already knew, only this time we were able to verify the fact that people will purchase the photo's when it's effortless and they're still caught up in the moment. <br /><br />This is when I decided to search for an efficient and cost effective method of printing on site. I scoured the web for weeks, two or more hours a day, and found that the Sony Snaplab is the most viable solution for what we're doing. However, there is very little support, information, or feedback from users available on the net. Most of what I found in various forums was a sentence or two about the snaplab product or event workflow, or a salesperson throwing a bunch of specs at me. <br /><br />I plan on buying one or two of these machines, but haven't settled on a model, and will continue to give feedback in the new forum as I learn more. There is at least one guy in the group, Ted, who has sold a bunch of Snaplabs and seems to have a lot of good info</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandiegojoey Posted October 18, 2009 Author Share Posted October 18, 2009 <p>I've really immersed myself in this topic in the past few days. Here's one of the best workflow discussions I've found on the net when it comes to event print sales, it encompasses everything I've already learned, albeit the hard way! <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/sonysnaplab/discuss/72157622482463133/" target="_blank">www.flickr.com/groups/sonysnaplab/discuss/72157622482463133/</a><br> I've found that photography is much like any other retail sales function in that unless a person leaves their home deliberately seeking a photo of themselves, sales are limited to impulse buying. The retail industry has already proven that merchandising and efficiency will get people to make impulse purchases.<br> I've found from experience that the same goes for sporting event print sales. I've done a dozen or so large events with limited success, enough to cover cost and put a small amount into my pocket. Initially I focused on image quality, number of photo's, and advertisement/ website exposure. I figured that if I can produce a once in a lifetime photo that people will buy. I was getting hundreds, and in some cases thousands of hits/views, but few sales. So, I reduced my price when they didn't sell, and still minimal results.<br> I've since found that although those are necessary parts of the equation, like any other retail business venture it ultimately comes down to sales presentation, merchandising, and impulse buying.<br> I recently did an international adult softball tournament with another photographer to test our theory. After covering several large events each, we agreed that the key to making money would be point-of-sale presentation and efficiency rather than a cool website with great photo's and great prices. Well unfortunately we were right, and regretfully we were unable to deliver in an efficient way due to limited print capability. We didn't have a printer on site, so the idea was to shoot all day Saturday, edit and print at a local 24-hour photo lab, then sell on Sunday while still shooting the remainder of games. We shot more than 2000 photo's on day one and decided to choose the best 600 to display and print, and the rest would being uploaded to our Snapfish website for sale on the web. We made announcements, handed out flyers and sent emails to the participants to let them know about the websites. To make a long story short, sales were 10:1 between the day of sales and web sales! For every ten dollars in sales we made during the event we only sold $1 worth afterwards on the website. <br /><br />This confirmed what we already knew, only this time we were able to verify the fact that people will purchase the photo's when it's effortless and they're still caught up in the moment. <br /><br />This is when I decided to search for an efficient and cost effective method of printing on site. I scoured the web for weeks, two or more hours a day, and found that the Sony Snaplab is the most viable solution for what we're doing. However, there is very little support, information, or feedback from users available on the net. Most of what I found in various forums was a sentence or two about the snaplab product or event workflow, or a salesperson throwing a bunch of specs at me. <br /><br />I plan on buying one or two of these machines, but haven't settled on a model, and will continue to give feedback in the new forum as I learn more. There is at least one guy in the group, Ted, who has sold a bunch of Snaplabs and seems to have a lot of good info</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandiegojoey Posted October 18, 2009 Author Share Posted October 18, 2009 <p>I've really immersed myself in this topic in the past few days. Here's one of the best workflow discussions I've found on the net when it comes to event print sales, it encompasses everything I've already learned, albeit the hard way! <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/sonysnaplab/discuss/72157622482463133/" target="_blank">www.flickr.com/groups/sonysnaplab/discuss/72157622482463133/</a><br> I've found that photography is much like any other retail sales function in that unless a person leaves their home deliberately seeking a photo of themselves, sales are limited to impulse buying. The retail industry has already proven that merchandising and efficiency will get people to make impulse purchases.<br> I've found from experience that the same goes for sporting event print sales. I've done a dozen or so large events with limited success, enough to cover cost and put a small amount into my pocket. Initially I focused on image quality, number of photo's, and advertisement/ website exposure. I figured that if I can produce a once in a lifetime photo that people will buy. I was getting hundreds, and in some cases thousands of hits/views, but few sales. So, I reduced my price when they didn't sell, and still minimal results.<br> I've since found that although those are necessary parts of the equation, like any other retail business venture it ultimately comes down to sales presentation, merchandising, and impulse buying.<br> I recently did an international adult softball tournament with another photographer to test our theory. After covering several large events each, we agreed that the key to making money would be point-of-sale presentation and efficiency rather than a cool website with great photo's and great prices. Well unfortunately we were right, and regretfully we were unable to deliver in an efficient way due to limited print capability. We didn't have a printer on site, so the idea was to shoot all day Saturday, edit and print at a local 24-hour photo lab, then sell on Sunday while still shooting the remainder of games. We shot more than 2000 photo's on day one and decided to choose the best 600 to display and print, and the rest would being uploaded to our Snapfish website for sale on the web. We made announcements, handed out flyers and sent emails to the participants to let them know about the websites. To make a long story short, sales were 10:1 between the day of sales and web sales! For every ten dollars in sales we made during the event we only sold $1 worth afterwards on the website. <br /><br />This confirmed what we already knew, only this time we were able to verify the fact that people will purchase the photo's when it's effortless and they're still caught up in the moment. <br /><br />This is when I decided to search for an efficient and cost effective method of printing on site. I scoured the web for weeks, two or more hours a day, and found that the Sony Snaplab is the most viable solution for what we're doing. However, there is very little support, information, or feedback from users available on the net. Most of what I found in various forums was a sentence or two about the snaplab product or event workflow, or a salesperson throwing a bunch of specs at me. <br /><br />I plan on buying one or two of these machines, but haven't settled on a model, and will continue to give feedback in the new forum as I learn more. There is at least one guy in the group, Ted, who has sold a bunch of Snaplabs and seems to have a lot of good info</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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